


Chameleon-Arched Rose Tyler: 10th Doctor era

by Doctorwhofan01



Series: Chameleon Arched Rose Tyler [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, F/M, Time Lord Rose Tyler
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 53,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctorwhofan01/pseuds/Doctorwhofan01
Summary: This story is about what if Rose was the Doctor's original Wife he had on gallifrey and was chameleon arched after regenerating into a babyThis story was originally exclusive on Fanfiction.Net and has been finished since June 14th, 2019
Relationships: Jack Harkness/River Song, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Chameleon Arched Rose Tyler [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675720
Kudos: 11





	1. Prolouge

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes the BBC**

Rose has always had a fob Watch but never remembered how she got it. She also has weird dreams of where she's a Gallifreyan and has a granddaughter named Susan in english and named 'Arkytior in Gallifreyan snd that's her Gallifreyan name as well in her dream.  
A few weeks after she absorbed the time vortex and the Doctor's regeneration, in the Console room she was looking at her fob watch and the Doctor walked over to her "What is that you're holding, Rose?" He asked her and she showed him her watch "My watch, I've had it my entire life, the only thing is I don't remember how I got it." She explained and the Doctor was in shock 'Could Rose be a Time Lady?' He thought to himself.  
He took the watch and examined it and read the gallifreyan writing on the watch which had the name Arkytior on it and had the rest of his wife's full name who he thought died before he first left Gallifrey when he was 209 years old.  
"Rose have you ever heard your voice coming from this watch?" He asked and she was confused on what's important about the watch "What's so important about my watch?" She asked and he wanted an answer "Rose, please answer the question ." He said and she Shook her head "How about weird dreams or memories of stuff you don't even remember experiencing?" He asked her and shw was confused on how she knew she had weird dreams and memories when she sleep "Yes I have, Doctor. How do you know?"  
'So this confirms it, Rose is Arkytior: my wife.' He thought to himself and happy knowing that his wife never died.  
"Doctor? What's so interesting about my watch?" She asked him wanting to know what was interesting about her watch.  
"Rose, this is a biodata module-" Rose interuphim "A what?" She asked confusedly and he answered "a biodata module contains the biology and essence of a time lord. And... It's yours. And I know the person who you were: my wife." He said and she was in shock and contemplating as she started to hear her watch speak to her with her own voice "Please open me. I cannot stand much longer in this watch and if you love him, then open me and he could have his wife back." her voice from the watch said and she took the watch, and was contemplating for a few moments and then she opened the watch.  
Her biology started to change and burn as her second heart regrew and the other one moved to the other side of her chest, she regained her Respiratory bypass system and all her memories came back from meeting the Doctor and Koschei (the Master) when she was a timetot, to when she stared into the untempered schism, to her and the Doctor's graduation from the Academy, to her and the Doctor's wedding, to when she learned to fly a tardis and passed unlike her husband who failed the test twice, and she remembered her children and Grandchildren.  
She also remembered her actual age and that she and the Doctor were the first two Gallifreyans to be birthed in a few millennia.  
She rushed towards the Doctor and hugged him in what felt like centuries for both of them but it was centuries for the Doctor "How old are you Arkytior?" He asked his wife, not sure of how old she was. "I'm 220 years old, Theta." She told him "So Theta you're on your 11th regeneration?" He nodded to confirm what she asked. "Theta I still feel the same from before I opened the watch." She told him.  
The Doctor said "I guess we have to tell Jackie that you're not her daughter." He said to his wife.


	2. Confronting Jackie

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

As the Tardis Materializes near the Powell estate, the Tardis produced a Sonic screwdriver for Rose "Thanks." She told the Tardis and the Tardis hummed a reply.

"Arkytior, I forgot before I lost you, did you choose a title?" The Doctor asked Rose because it's been almost a thousand years since he saw his wife.

"Theta, I didn't choose a title before you lost me. I think I will choose 'Rose' as my title." She said and then they walked out the Tardis to Jackie's flat.  
Rose knocked on the door of Jackie's flat and she answered as she opened the door and as she saw Rose she hugged her then she let go of Rose.

"Mum can we go to the kitchen we have something important and shocking to tell you and when we tell you please don't freak out."

  
The Doctor, Rose and Jackie went to the kitchen and both the Doctor and Rose explained that she's not Rose's mother and that Rose was actually the same species as the Doctor and told her about the watch.

  
"So uh... Rose, you're telling me that you're not my daughter?" Jackie asked and Rose nodded her head in confirmation.

  
"I'll still call you mum besides my biological parents are dead, and another reason is that I'll Consider you as a mother." Rose told her indulgently.

  
"Rose, so if he's 900 how old are you?" Jackie asked Rose out of curiosity.

"I'm 220 if you count my time as a human but if you discount my time as a human then i'm 200." Rose answered Jackie's question.

  
Jackie had a few more questions "Does this mean you both are a couple now?" Jackie asked both Time lords.

  
Rose and the Doctor didn't know how to put it "Mum, we married before I became a human." Rose said "We were childhood sweethearts." "Before I started traveling I thought she died." The Doctor added and just then Rose's phone starts ringing, it was Mickey.

  
"Rose I think I found something for you and the Doctor to look into, something with a school." Mickey said and he hung up and before the Time lords went to mickey's they went to the Tardis "Arkytior, I want to show you every companion I had before I met your human self." He said and she allowed him to show her telepathically and he showed her all if his companions excluding her but including Sarah Jane.

  
They then went to Mickey's and he showed them what school he was talking about.

  
They went to the school to get hired The Doctor: a science teacher and Rose: a history teacher.


	3. School Reunion part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

The Doctor and Rose went back to the Tardis Locked it after entering it and they found that the Tardis merged their rooms, they smiled and thanked her and they went to bed with each other for the first time in a long time every since they were the same age on Gallifrey.

The following morning the Doctor piloted the Tardis and materialized inside a cupboard room with the breaks off and the Doctor went to the classroom he was in and Rose did the same but before they left they kissed each other.

As The Doctor had his glasses on as he enters his classroom which was Physics "Good morning class, are we sitting comfortably." He said as he smiled.

Meanwhile in Rose's classroom she did the same but she also introduced herself as 'Ms. Smith '.

Back in the classroom with the Doctor he picked up an erasable black marker and wrote the word 'Physics' on the whiteboard behind him and said Physics a couple times. He wanted to know what the students knew already, "Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. what would happen if they were brought near each other?" he asked and a boy with blond hair and glasses raised his hand "Yes uh What's your name?" The Doctor asked the student "Milo." the student answered. "Milo! off you go." the Doctor exclaimed. "They'd repel each other cause they have the same charge."Milo answered "Correctamundo!" The Doctor exclaimed A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again." he added.

"Question two, I coil up a thin piece of micro wire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this: how do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?" No one but Milo raised their hands "Someone else?" the Doctor asked but he got no response so he decided Milo could answer it "Nope?... Milo, go for it."

"Measure the current and PDs in an ampmeter and Voltmeter." Milo answered and The Doctor looked impressed "Two to Milo." he said "Right then, Milo, tell me this; true or false: the greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings."

"False." Milo answered

"What is non-coding DNA?" The Doctor asked "DNA that doesn't code for a protein." Milo answered

"Sixty-five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-eighty-three times five?" The Doctor asked "Three-hundred-and-twenty-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-fifteen." Milo answered

"How do you travel faster than light?" The doctor asked "By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of 36.7 recurring." Milo answered and that was a shock of his life and he dropped his jaw.

In the Classroom with Rose she did the same thing as her husband but she wrote the word 'History' instead of Physics. She then asked "I want to know how much your last teacher taught you, Where was General Napoleon Bonaparte from?"

A student raised their hand "He was Corsican but the island was annexed by France a few years before he was born." Rose smiled "Correct. What is your name?" she asked "Susan." the student answered.

"What was the American Civil war fought about?" Rose asked and the same student raised their hand and the others looked bored "Someone else." Rose stated but no one answered then she decided to pick Susan again. "The American civil war was fought about many factors mostly important one was Savery, the second one was industry and the last one was State's rights." Susan answered.

Rose was impressed. "What caused us to enter World War 1?" Rose asked her. "The schlieffen Plan by which Germany invaded neutral Belgium to get to France." Susan answered

"Who discovered the New World?" Rose asked her "A norse explorer by the name of Leif Eriksson who discovered Green;and in 1002 CE" Susan answered.

"Who made the Nazca LInes?" Rose asked "It was made by extraterrestrials." Susan answered and that answer made Rose's jaw drop because this is a few centuries too early for humans to know that.

Later after The Doctor and Rose's classes in the lunchroom they went to get their food trays and a dinner lady spoons Mash potato on their trays , they got chips and they went to a table "Rose how was your class? he asked "Mine was weird because a boy in the class had knowledge way beyond present day earth."

"same." she answered "A girl in my class who has the same earth name as our granddaughter knew that the Nazca lines were made by aliens." "You eating those chips?" she asked "No they're a bit different he answered " She takes one and eat it and agreed "Theta, I think you're right."

"I thought there'd be happy-slapping hoodies. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones." Rose looks at her husband impressively "Yeah? Yeah? Oh, yeah! Don't tell me I don't fit in. I know this stuff even though, I traveled for centuries without you and have more experience and we were born a few months apart and my love, you're still the same person I married almost a thousand years ago." He told her "I know." She told him.

"Do you have any classes next?" He asked her "I don't have any." She said. "Me neither." he said and they decided after lunch to go to the teachers lounge.

The Doctor and Rose watch a teacher, Mr Wagner, approaches a girl sitting a few tables away. "Melissa. You'll be joining my class for the next period. Milo's failed me... so it's time we moved you up to the top class." Wagner said The Doctor and Rose watches the teacher eating silently . Wagner looked at a fat boy next to Melissa "Kenny? Not eating the chips?" He asked Kenny. "I'm not allowed." Kenny responded and then Wager looked at another boy "Luke, extra class. Now." He said before leaving with several children follow him. The Headmaster: watches the proceedings from a balcony above the lunchroom and He seems to notice the Doctor watching him.

In the Teacher's lounge the Doctor is sitting on a desk,Rose is next to him and he is nibbling a biscuit and a there was a teacher pacing up and down in front of them "But yesterday, I had a twelve-year-old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy... in cubits." A teacher named Parsons told them, "And, it's ever since the new headmaster arrived?" Rose asked Parsons "Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot." Parsons told them and he nods over to where a group of smart looking teachers are standing and bothe the Doctor looks over Parsons shoulder and Rose walked around to look at them.

"Except for the teachers you both replaced, and that was just plain weird, both of them winning the lottery like that." Parsons added "How's that weird?" the Doctor asked, confusedly "They never played! Said the ticket was posted through their doors at midnight." Parsons explained and the Doctor puts another biscuit into his mouth "Hmm! The world is very strange." he said "Wouldn't you agree,Rose?" He asked his wife and she nods in agreement.

The Headmaster came in "Excuse me, colleagues, a moment of your time." The Doctor and Rose turns and the Doctor's eyes widen and he stands, just staring ashe saw the face of one of his former companions: Sarah Jane Smith. "May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist, who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times." the Headmaster added and Sarah Jane smiles around at them all and The corners of the Doctor's mouth begin to turn upwards in a smile, "I thought it might be useful for her to get 'a view from the trenches', so to speak. Don't spare my blushes." the Headmaster said before leaving.

Sarah Jane catches the Doctor's eye and approaches him and Rose. "Hello!" She greets them "Oh, I should think so!" the Doctor said "And, you are...?" The Doctor can't take his eyes off her "Hm? Uh, Smith. John Smith." he said "John Smith? I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name." Sarah Jane said remembering both the 3rd and 4th Doctor. "Well, it's a very common name!" he said.

"He was a very uncommon man." she said, reminiscing her Doctors and she holds out her hand at the Doctor "And You are?" she asked Rose. "Rose. Rose Smith." Rose answered. "Nice to meet both of you!" Sarah Jane said. "Nice to meet you! Yes! Very nice! More than nice, brilliant!" The Doctor said meeting her since his 5th incarnation with his former companions Tegan Jovanka and Visor Turlough. "Um... so, um, have you worked here long?" Sarah Jane asked them. " It's only our first day." Rose told Sarah Jane. "Oh, you are both new, then? So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum?" Sarah Jane asked both time lords and the Doctor can still not tear his eyes away from her, and he's smiling at her but she doesn't seem to notice. "So many children getting ill, doesn't that strike to either of you as odd?" Sarah Jane asked them. "don't sound like someone just doing a profile." The Doctor noted while grinning. "Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here." Sarah Jane said.

"No. Good for you." The Doctor said as Sarah Jane walks away to meet some of the other teachers. The Doctor was so proud of his former companion "Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith."

Later after the day comes to an end and night falls over the school The corridors are dark and empty, the chairs up on the desks, a torch shines into a classroom, and there is Sarah Jane at the window. She undoes the latch and peers inside. When she is sure the coast is clear, she hoists herself inside.

In another part of the school The Doctor opens a fire door and comes through it into a dark corridor, followed by his wife and Mickey. "Oh, it's weird seeing school at night. It just feels wrong. They make their way cautiously down the corridor. When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school." Rose murmured to herself.

"All right, team. Oh, I hate people who say team. Um... gang. Um... comrades. Uh... anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen and get a sample of that oil. Mickey, the new staff are all Maths teachers, go and check out the Maths department. I'm gonna look in Finch's office. Be back here in ten minutes." He takes off up the stairs and Rose was fiddling with her sleeve "Rose, you okay?" Mickey said "You're acting different than on Christmas."

"Mickey I'm not human." Rose said. "Don't be daft." Mickey said not believing her. "I am." she said "I'm the Doctor's original wife, I knew him when I was a kid, me and him are childhood sweethearts and I'm 220 years old. If you still don't believe me feel my pulse." she said Mickey felt her pulse and was shocked "You really are an alien." Mickey said, confusedly. "Longstory for another day. But are you gonna be all right with investigation?"

"Me? Please. Infiltration and investigation? I'm an expert at this." He strides away with purpose and Rose just stands there smirking, waiting for him to come back, which he does almost immediately. "Where's the Maths department?" he asked Rose points in the opposite direction "Down there, turn left, through the fire doors, on the right." "Thank you." he said leaving.

The Doctor heads down a dark corridor, brow furrowed as he hears screeches and flaps in the distance. He pauses for a moment and then strides to find the source of the noise.

Meanwhile, Sarah Jane begins to pick the lock to the headmaster's office. She hears a bang followed by a screech, and spins around, eyes wide. The sounds become even louder and closer and she gives a sharp intake of breath and backs away down the corridor.

In the kitchen Rose takes the lid off the barrel of oil and spoons some into a small jar. A shadow passes over her followed by a screech. She looks up sharply.

Sarah Jane backs into a room and slams the door behind her. She turns slowly and there, looming in front of her, is the TARDIS. Her eyes widen in shock and she backs out of the room, not believing it...

Sarah Jane stares at the closed door, and then turns slowly around and saw The Doctor standing there in the darkness, watching her. "Hello, Sarah Jane." he said softly "It's you. Oh... Doctor..." She whispering in disbelief and a smile starts to spread across her face as she edges towards him. "Oh, my God, it's you, it's... it's... you've regenerated."

"Half a dozen times since we last met." He told her "You look... incredible." "So do you." He said "I got old." She told him

She edges around him, and staring at him. "What're you doing here?" She asked him. "Well... UFO sightings, school gets record results, I couldn't resist." He answered "What about you?"

"Same." She said

"Do you know that woman who called herself Rose?" Sarah asked. "She's my original wife." he said. "I found her. She was somehow a chameleon arched human." They laugh. But Sarah Jane's smile falters and she is close to tears when she speaks again. "I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must've died." "I lived. Everyone on gallifrey died."

"What do you mean?" Sarah Jane asked quiet pain): Everyone on Gallifrey died me and Rose are the only ones left, Sarah." the Doctor said quietly and it pained him to remember what he did. Sarah Jane shakes her head. I can't believe it's you." She said whispering in her disbelief. Then the moment was broken by the sound of Mickey screaming.

"Okay! Now I can!" She said and they ran from the gym to find the source of the scream. They almost skid into Rose who runs from a converging corridor. "Did you hear that?" Rose asked her husband She notices Sarah Jane. "So, you're his original wife." She asked Rose. "Yeah I am." Rose answered "How did you know?"

"I told her, Rose." The Doctor said answering his wife's question.

The Doctor speeds off and they follow him and soon they found Mickey in one of the classrooms, surrounded by a load of vacuum-packed rats. "Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I, I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell out of them." Mickey explained. The Doctor bends down and picks a few up to examine them. Rose was shocked because when she went to school as a human she never saw vacuum-packed rats. "Oh, my God, they're rats. Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats." she said. "And you decided to scream." the Doctor said, teasing Mickey "It took me by surprise!" Mickey defended himself. "Like a little girl?" The Doctor said still teasing Mickey. "It was dark! I was covered in rats!"

"Nine, maybe ten years old. I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt." the Doctor said Rose was getting annoyed at her husband still picking on Mickey "Hello, Doctor, can we focus? Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school in 2006?"

"Anyway, moving on." the Doctor started Everything started when Mr Finch arrived. We should go and check his office. He chucks the rat he is holding back to Mickey, who drops it. They follow the Doctor out and down the corridor.

Outside 's office The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to unlock the door. "Maybe those rats were food." The Doctor suggested "Food for what?" Rose asked "I believe they're krillitanes." She told him

The Doctor opens the door and peers inside. There are some incredibly strange noises coming from there. The Doctor's eyes are fixed on the ceiling and saw bat like creatures. Rose... you know when you were human you used to think all the teachers slept in the school...? Well... here they do." The bat-like creatures are hanging upside down from the ceiling. The four of them stare at them. "No way!" Mickey blurted out before running away.


	4. School Reunion part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor who that goes to the BBC**

Rose ran after Mickey followed by her husband and Sarah Jane out of the School near the front doors. Mickey was out of breath from running "I am not going back in there. No way."

"Those were teachers! One step closer to finding out what species they are." Rose told them

"When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen. Thirteen big bat people. Come on." He explained.

"Come on, you've got to be kidding!" Mickey said "My husband needs the TARDIS. cause he's got to analyze that oil I got from the kitchen." Rose explained " Doctor, I might be able to help you, there. I've got something to show you!" she said to Rose and then she grabs the Doctor's arm and pulls him excitedly in the direction of a parked car .

At Sarah Jane's car she opens the trunk(boot) of her car. Inside is something covered with a green blanket. The Doctor pulls the blanket off to reveal a robot dog that he had in his 4th incarnation, when he wore a long scarf and had curly hair:K9.

"K9! Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, allow me to introduce K9... Well, K9 Mark III to be precise." The Doctor said delightedly Mickey had a look that said 'it's a tin dog'.

"What's happened to him?" the Doctor asked. "Oh, one day, he just... nothing!"

"Well, didn't you try and get him repaired?" the Doctor asked Sarah Jane, Mickey shakes his head and stares at K9, not really getting it "Well, it's not like getting parts for a mini-metro! Beside, the technology inside him could rewrite human science. I couldn't show him to anyone!"Sarah answered. "Ooh, what's the nasty lady done to you? Eh?" the Doctor asked K9

Mickey stares at him and Rose rolls her eyes at her husband, The Doctor strokes K9 making coo-ing noises. They are being observed, "Look, no offense but could you two just stop petting for a minute? Can you start repairing him." Rose told her husband. The Doctor closes the _he_ trunk(boot), grinning. The bat-like creature flies past the moon, screeching.

The Doctor, Sarah Jane, Rose and Mickey are in a chip shop and The Doctor and Sarah Jane are sitting at a table by the window, chatting and laughing whilst the Doctor tries to fix K9, who has been placed on the table-top. Mickey and Rose are by the counter.

"So could you tell me how you're an alien?" Mickey asked and Rose decides to tell him "My watch." she started. "What about your watch?" Mickey asked, not knowing what was special about her watch. "My watch held my true self and essence inside when I opened it I regained all my memories and biology changed back to gallifreyan, Before I opened it I had weird dreams of Gallifrey: my home Planet." She explained how she's an alien to him.

Outside on a rooftop Mr Finch is standing on top of a building on the other side of the road.

"Come to me... come to me..." he told one of the bat-like creatures and the bat-like creature he spoke to swoops down towards him. It lands on the building beside him, and together they watch the Doctor through the window of the chip shop.

Inside the Chip Shop Sarah Jane said "I thought of you on Christmas Day. This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead, I thought, 'Oh, yeah. Bet he's up there'."

"Right on top of it, yeah A few weeks ago for me." The Doctor confirmed.

"And Rose?" Sarah Jane asked wondering if teh Doctor's wife was there with him on December 25th, 2006.

"She was there too. But she was still a human at the time, We recently found out that she was my wife yesterday in fact. "

There is a pause whilst Sarah Jane looks at him and the Doctor fiddles with K9's wires.

"Did I do something wrong? Because you never came back for me. You just... dumped me." Sarah Jane said

"I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed." He said,defending himself.

"I waited for you. I missed you." she said

"Oh, you didn't need me! You were getting on with your life." He said, brushing this off

"You were my life." she told him and the Doctor looks up at her. "You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, and with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?" she asked him

"All those things you saw, do you want me to apologize for that?" The Doctor said furrowing his brow. "No, but we get a taste of that splendour... and then we have to go back." Sarah Jane said "But look at you, you're investigating. You found that school, you're doing what we always did."The Doctor said, smiling "You could've come back." Sarah Jane told him "I couldn't." he muttered "Why not?" She asked him but the Doctor does not answer.

Sarah Jane shakes her head and the Doctor switches his sonic screwdriver back on and returns to repairing K9, but she's still not done "It wasn't Croydon, where you dropped me off, it wasn't Croydon!" Sarah Jane told him,talking about the conclusion of her final adventure with him.

"Where was it?" he asked her.

"Aberdeen."Sarah Jane answered, irritably. "Right." he said quietly,realisation dawning of what he accidently done centuries ago for im and decades for her.

there was a brief Pause "That's next to Croydon, isn't it?" he asked her and Sarah Jane smiles and shakes her head and at that moment, K9 springs to life.

"Oh, hey! Now we're in business!" The Doctor exclaimed as K9 powers on and he leaps to his feet and stands in front of K9 "Master!" K9 exclaimed "He recognizes me!" the Doctor said happily "Affirmative." K9 confirmed

"Rose honey, give us the oil." the Doctor told his wife

On a roof Mr Finch and the creature still watches. and Finch crouches and the bat-like creature follows suit.

Back in the Chip Shop the Doctor takes off the lid of the jar with the oil inside and is just about to dip his finger in it.

He dips his finger into the oil and K9 puts out a sensor which the Doctor to smear the oil onto "Here we go. Come on, boy. Here we go." The Doctor said, crossibg his arms.

"Oil. Ex, ex, ex, extract ana, an... analysing..." K9 stuttered like King George VI (Albert).

"Listen to it, man! That's a voice!" Mickey exclaimed, grinning and delighted.

"Careful! That's my dog!" Sarah Jane said as she was offended.

Mickey looks sheepish. "Confirmation of analysis: substance is Krillitane Oil." K9 said confirming Rose's suspicions.

The Doctor was shocked Rose, honey, you were right. They're Krillitanes."

"Is that bad?" Sarah Jane asked

"Very. Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad." The Doctor started.

"And what are... Krillitanes?" Sarah Jane asked

"They're a composite race. Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by, you've got bits, bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever... the Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry-pick the best bits from the people they destroy." Rose explained

"That's why we didn't recognize them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks." The Doctor said.

"Doctor, You've met them before?" Rose asked him.

"Yes I have, Rose before the Time War." He told his wife

"What are they doing here?" Sarah Jane and Mickey asked in unison.

(horrible realization "It's the children. They're doing something to the children." The Doctor said as he realized that the krillitane are going to do something horrible.

On the roof Mr Finch and the other Krillitane glance at one another. The Krillitane screeches.

Outside the chip shop Mickey and Sarah Jane hoist K9 into the trunk (boot) of the car "So, what's the deal with the tin dog?" Mickey asked wondering about K9.

"The Doctor likes travelling with an entourage. Sometimes they're humans, sometimes they're aliens, and sometimes... they're tin dogs." She explained and Mickey smiles and gives a small laugh. "What about you? Where do you fit in the picture?" She asked him. "Me? I'm their Man in Havana. I'm the technical support, I'm..." he started enthusiastically and it hits him.

"Oh, my God. I'm the tin dog." He said in shock and realization and then hee sits down in shock. Sarah Jane grins and pats him on the shoulder.

On the rooftop the Krillitane on the rooftop screeches, but Finch puts his finger to his lips to silence it. "On my command." Mr. Finch told the krillitane.

The Doctor leaves the chip shop followed by Rose "Why didn't you tell me about the other people you traveled with when I was a chameleon arched human ?" She asked her husband "Does it matter?" He asked trying to dodge the question.

"Yeah, it does, if you're going to do that to me eventually." Rose said with her voice trembling.

"As opposed to what?" He asked his wife, not trying to hurt her and he was staring at her, looking hurt.

"I thought you and me were... childhood sweethearts but I obviously got it wrong. You just leave them behind. Is that what you're going to do to me?" Rose asked wondering if he'll leave her behind.

"No. Not to you. Not my wife. Plus you were the first woman I fell in love with, Arkytior." The Doctor said abruptly.

"But Sarah Jane... you were that close to her once, and now... you never even mention her when I was a Chameleon arched hunan. Why not?" Rose asked

"We don't age. We regenerate. But humans decay. They wither and they die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you..." he said but He stops in the middle as he realized what he was going to say.

"What, Theta?" Rose asked

"They could spend the rest of their lives with us. But We can't spend the rest of ours with them. We have to live on. That's the curse of the Time Lords." He explained

"Time Lords." They heard Mr. Finch say and they saw him and a Krillitane on the roof and the krillitane screeches and swoops down towards them and they duck, but then it just flies away.

"Was that a Krillitane?" Sarah Jane asked after the Krillitane nearly touched her." Sarah Jane asked.

"But it didn't even touch her, it just flew off! What did it do that for?" Mickey asked as the Krillitane flies off into the night, screeching.

The next morning, the school bell rings and the children flock towards the building and the Doctor, Mickey, Rose and Sarah Jane get out of Sarah Jane's car and stride towards the school, the Doctor pauses for a moment to give instructions "Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside." He instructed. "Rose got your sonic screwdriver with you?" he asked his wife. "Yep." Rose answered her husband's question.

He turned to Mickey "Mickey, surveillance. I want you outside."

"Just stand outside?" Mickey asked not knowing what the Doctor meant.

"Here, take these, you can keep K9 company." Sarah Jane said as she gave Mickey her car keys.

"Don't forget to leave the window open a crack." The Doctor told him.

"But he's metal!" Mickey told him.

"I didn't mean for him." The Doctor said

"He meant for you." Rose explained.

"What're you gonna do?" Rose asked her husband.

"It's time I had a word with Mr Finch." He told his wife

In a corridor of the school a pair of shiny black shoes walk down a crowded corridor. They pause a moment. Mr Finch looks up and sees the Doctor leaning over the stairwell, looking down at him and making no attempt to disguise the fact. After giving him a hard stare, Mr Finch goes on his way and the Doctor continues on up the stairs.

The Doctor opens the door to the swimming pool room, where Mr Finch is waiting for him on the opposite side of the water "Who are you?" The Doctor asked him.

"My name is Brother Lassa. And you?" Finch replied

"The Doctor. Since when did Krillitanes have wings?"

"It's been our form for nearly ten generations, now. Our ancestors invaded Bessan. The people there had some rather lovely wings. They made a million widows in one day, just imagine." Finch told him.

"And now you're shaped human." The Doctor noted.

"A personal favourite, that's all." Finch said.

"And the others?" The Doctor asked

"My brothers remain bat form. What you see is a simple morphic illusion. Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath." Finch told him.

They begin to walk slowly towards the same side of the pool.

"And what of the Time Lords? I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and... chaos. And of course, they're all but extinct. Only two. The last."

"This plan of yours, what is it?" The Doctor asked, wondering what it is.

"You don't know." Finch said.

"That's why I'm asking." The Doctor told him, and they are facing each other now, rivals, the tension is rising "Well, show me how clever you are. Work it out."

"If I don't like it... then it will stop."

"Fascinating. Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor?"

"I'm so old, now. I used to have so much mercy." The Doctor said quietly and he stares at him "You get one warning. That was it." The Doctor said and he turns his back on Finch and begins to walk away.

"But we're not even enemies. Soon... you and the time lady will embrace us." Finch told him.

The Doctor turns back "The next time we meet, you and the time lady will join with me. I promise you." Finch told him.

Mr Finch walks past him with a knowing smile on his face and leaves. The Doctor watches him go suspiciously, brow furrowed.

In Sarah Jane's car Mickey winds the car window down. He folds his arms, looking extremely grumpy "Surveillance. If you ask me, it's just another way of saying Go sit at the back of the class with the safety scissors and glitter." Mickey said to himself.

He glances at K9 who is not switched on but has his head poked through the gap between the two front seats. He sighs "That'd be me talking to a metal dog, then." He muttered to himself.

In the school's computer lab Sarah Jane is crouched beneath one of the computer desks and trying to switch on Rose's sonic screwdriver. Sarah Jane comes out, hits the keyboard and stares at the sonic screwdriver. Rose is with her legs crossed on one of the chairs "It's not working!" Sarah Jane told her.

"Give me my screwdriver back to me." Rose said

Rose takes her sonic screwdriver back from Sarah Jane, rolling her eyes, and ducks underneath the desk.

"Used to work first time in my day." Sarah stated, thinking about her time when she traveled with the Doctor.

"Well, things were a lot simpler back when you traveled with my husband." Rose told her and then she turns her sonic screwdriver on and it whirrs and buzzes as she holds it to the back of the computer.

"Rose, can I give you a bit of advice?"

"I've got a feeling you're about to." Rose said

"I know how intense a relationship with your husband can be, and I don't want you to feel I'm intruding..." sarah said but was interrupted.

" I don't feel threatened by you if that's what you mean. I grew up with him, we were childhood sweethearts and I'm 220 years old." She told Sarah Jane.

"Right. Good. Because, I'm not interested in picking up where we left off." Sarah said.

"No? With the big sad eyes and the robot dog? What else were you doing last night?" Rose said sarcastically.

"I was just saying how hard it was adjusting to life back on Earth..." sarah Jane started.

Rose stood up and walked away a few paces "The thing is... when you two met... they'd only just got rid of rationing. No wonder all that space stuff was a bit too much for ya." She said

Sarah Jane walked up to Rose, indignant "I had no problem with space stuff. I saw things you wouldn't believe when you were human."

"Try me." Rose challenged, coldly.

"Mummies." Sarah Jane told her.

"My human self met ghosts." Rose told sarah Jane.

"Robots. Lots of robots." Sarah Jane challenged.

"My human self's met Slitheen. In Downing Street." She defended herself

"Daleks!" Exclaimed Sarah Jane

"My human self met the Emperor of the Daleks and turned him into dust." Rose said as she snorts.

"Anti-Matter monsters." Sarah Jane challenged.

"My human self's met gas masked zombies." Rose told her

"Real living dinosaurs!" Sarah screamed at her.

"My human self's met a lupine Wavelength Haemovariform also known as a real living werewolf!" Rose challenged.

"The Loch Ness Monster!" Sarah Jane challenged.

"Seriously? There's no such thing as the loch ness monster." Rose said

Sarah Jane puts her hands over her mouth and shakes her head. Rose smiles and laughs slightly.

"Listen to us. It's like when I was a human, me and my human self's mate Shireen. The only time we fell out was over a man, and... we're arguing over my husband." Rose told her

Sarah Jane relaxes against a desk, and Rose looks at her for a moment.

"With you, did he do that thing where he'd explain something at like, ninety-miles-per-hour, and you'd go, 'what?'and he'd look at you like you'd just dribbled on your shirt? Because he did it to me when I was still human."

"All the time!" Sarah Jane told the time lady and then they laughed as they bonded with each other.

"Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?" Sarah Jane asked Rose.

"Yeah! Yeah! He did when I was still my human self! I was like, do you two wanna be alone?"' Rose answered.

They laugh madly, as the Doctor walks in "How's it going?" He asked them and the sight of him makes them laugh even harder.

"What? Listen, I need to find out what's programmed inside these." He said

They take no notice of him and fall about laughing hysterically, Rose pointing her sonic screwdriver at him but not activating her screwdriver.

"What? Stop it!" he said

children clambour to get inside the IT Suite occupied by the Doctor, Rose and Sarah Jane. Rose shoos them away. "No, no, this classroom's out of bounds. You've all gotta go to the South Hall. Off you go, South Hall!" told them at the doorway and the children move away and Rose shuts the door.

Rose went to her husband who has his sonic screwdriver clenched between his teeth, rips a handful of wires out of a computer and hangs them around his neck as runs the sonic screwdriver along the back of the computer. Sarah Jane watches him, looking slightly anxious. "I can't shift it." he said

"I thought the sonic screwdriver could open anything!" Sarah Jane said, confusedly.

"Anything except a deadlock seal." The Doctor and Rose told Sarah Jane.

"There's gotta be something inside here. What're they teaching those kids?" the Doctor said

Soon Every exit to the school slams shut and every computer in their IT Suite is displaying a code, including the large screen at the front of the room. " You wanted the program, there it is." Sarah Jane told him and bothe the Doctor and Rose were staring at it. "Some sort of code..." the Doctor said

Kenny runs down the corridors, looking through every window and seeing the same thing, hordes of children engrossed in the computers. Terrified, he runs back in the direction he came from and down the stairs. He tries the main doors at the front of the school, but they are sealed shut. He rattles them. Mickey notices him and immediately gets out of the car.

Back in the computer lab the Doctor and Rose were still staring at the code, their eyes widen and mouth slightly open in shock "No... no, they can't be..." they both cried.

Mickey ran to the closed doors "They've taken them all!" Kenny told him through the closed doors "What?" Mickey asked him. "They've taken all the children!" Kenny rephrased what he said.

Mickey runs back to the car and rips the blanket off K9. He presses random buttons frantically.

"Come on, I need some help!" he said and he whacks K9 on the head, then looks away helplessly, but... K9 powers on " System restarting. All primary drives functioning."

"You're working! Okay, no time to explain, we need to get inside the school. Do you have like, I dunno, a lock picking device?" Mickey told him. "We are in a car." K9 told him, and mickey looked confused on what he meant. "Maybe a drill attachment?" Mickey suggested. "We are in a car." K9 told him again. "Fat lot of good, you are." Mickey told him, annoyed

"We are in a car." K9 told him again. "Wait a second... we're in a car." Mickey said realizing what K9 was saying. "Get back!" he shouts at kenny and Kenny squints through the window.

Back in the computer room "The Skasis Paradigm." The Doctor and Rose said "They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm." The Doctor added. "The Skasis what?" Sarah Jane asked, not knowing what it is.

"The God-maker. The universal theory. Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control." Rose explained to Sarah Jane.

"What, and the kids are like a giant computer?" Sarah Jane asked "Yes." The Doctor said as he paces around, working it out. "And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil! That oil from the kitchens, it works as a... as a... conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer." he told her

"But that oil's on the chips. I've been eating them."Sarah Jane told them "What's fifty-nine times thirty-five?" he asked her "Two thousand and sixty five." Sarah Jane replied and both the Doctor and Rose gives her a 'that says it all' look. "Oh my God..." Sarah Jane said in shock

"But why use children? Can't they use adults?" She asked the two Time Lords.

"No, it's gotta be children. The God-maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code... they're using their souls." the Doctor told Sarah Jane as Mr Finch walks into the room, behind him "Let the lesson begin." Finch told them and the Doctor turns to face him. "Think of it, Doctor, and time Lady with the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it." Finch said as he slowly approached them

"Oh yeah? The whole of creation with the face of Mr Finch. Call me and my husband old fashioned, but we like things as they are." Rose said "What is your name, Time Lady?" Finch asked her "Rose Smith." Rose answered

"Both you and your husband act like such radicals, and yet all the two of you want to do is preserve the old order. Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."

"What, by someone like you?" The Doctor asked skeptical

"No... someone like you and your wife." Finch answered and The Doctor is silent, this is not the answer he was expecting.

"The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a God. At my side. Imagine what you could do, think of the civilizations you could save. Perganon, Assinta... your own people, Doctor and Rose. Standing tall. The Time Lords and Time Ladies... reborn."

The Doctor still says nothing, staring into Mr Finch's eyes and not looking away. "Doctor, don't listen to him." Sarah Jane said and turns to Sarah Jane "And you could be with him and his wife throughout eternity. Young... fresh... never wither, never age... never die. Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely must the two of you be, Doctor and Rose. Join us." Finch said

The Doctor has a faraway look in his eyes... he's so terribly tempted. "I could save everyone... Including me and my Wife's family including our grandchildren."

"Yes." Mr. Finch said

"I could stop the war..." The Doctor whispered and a small smile graces Finch's lips.

"No. The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love." both Sarah Jane and Rose said closes his eyes.

"Whether it's a world, or a relationship... everything has its time. And everything ends." Sarah Jane and Rose told the Doctor and he stares for a few more seconds and Sarah Jane's words seem to strengthen his resolve. He grits his teeth, picks up a chair and hurls it through the screen displaying the code, which smashes "Out!"

Outside the school Mickey has started the car and is now driving it straight towards the school, right through the front doors, smashing the windows. He leaps out "Come on!" He told kenny

Inside the school Mr Finch, is on the stairs, and he lets out a screech that echoes through the school. Mr Wagner and two other Krillitanes pause and morph into their true, bat form.

At a stairwell Kenny and Mickey meet the Doctor, Rose and Sarah Jane at the bottom of the stairs "What is going on?" Mickey asked as The three Krillitanes half fly, half grope their way along the corridor to them. The Doctor and the others turn on their heels and run in the opposite direction. The Krillitanes separate at the end of the corridor, and only one pursues them. They run into the canteen hall and try the doors on the other side, but they are locked. The Doctor reaches inside his coat for the sonic screwdriver, just as Mr Finch bursts through the doors followed by several of the Krillitanes.

"Are they my teachers?" Kenny asked

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Leave the Doctor and Rose alive. As for the others... you can feast." Finch told the other krillitanes and Krillitanes swoop down on them. The Doctor tries to beat them off with a chair. The others scream and try to duck out of the way, when suddenly, one of the Krillitanes is hit with a beam of red light and falls to the floor, dead. K9 has come to the rescue! Mr Finch roars with rage.

"K9!" Sarah Jane yelled, as she saw him.

"Suggest you engage running mode, mistress." K9 told her

"Come on!" The Doctor yelled.

The Doctor and the others run, and K9 shoots at the Krillitanes again and again "K9, hold them back!" The Doctor said. "Affirmative, master. Maximum defense mode!" K9 said

The Doctor reaches a door, he ushers the others through it. "Come on!" He slams it shut behind them and locks it with his sonic screwdriver and "Power supply failing." K9 said as he was still shooting the Krillitanes " Forget the shooty dog thing." Finch told the Krillitanes. "Power supply failing." K9 said and soon he reaches the end of his power supply and switches off.

In the Physics lab the Doctor has a sudden brainwave "It's the oil. Krillitane life forms can't handle the oil! That's it! They've changed the physiology so often, even their own oil is toxic to them. How much was there in the kitchens?"

"Last night I saw barrels of it." Rose answers her husbands question

They jump as the Krillitanes start to pound on the locked door, their claws ripping holes in it.

"Okay, we need to get to the kitchens. Mickey..." The Doctor started "What now, hold the coats?" MIckey asked "Get all the children unplugged and out of the school. Now then, bats, bats, bats, how do we fight bats?" The Doctor said. "How do we get out of here though?" Sarah Jane asked

"The Teachers, they're like bats." Kenny said approaching the Doctor "Yeah, thanks for that ." the Doctor said, sarcastically.

"But bats are blind, aren't they?" Kenny asked "Hmm, as bats." the Doctor said.

"But they've got really amazing hearing as well. So..." Kenny said as he strides over to a fire alarm, breaks the glass with his elbow and sets it off. The Krillitanes immediately wince and quail at the shrill sound. The Doctor beams and flings open the door, the Krillitanes are in too much distress to hurt them. He and the others quickly run past. Finch, gritting his teeth, punches through a wall and rips out a bundle of wires which cuts off the alarm "Get after them." He ordered the other krillitanes, he strides down the staircase, and the other three Krillitanes, having recovered, follow him.

The Doctor, his wife :Rose, Sarah Jane, Mickey and Kenny all ran down a corridor and K9 emerges from a doorway "Master!" K9 said.

"Come on, boy! Good boy." The Doctor said as K9 trundles along with them.

Mickey bursts into one of the Computer labs "Okay, listen everyone, we've gotta get out of here." he said but no one takes a blind bit of notice of him. The children are all 'plugged into' the computers. Bewildered, Mickey stares at a monitor, then waves his hand in front of Melissa's face which elicits no response whatsoever.

The Doctor, Rose, Sarah Jane, K9 and Kenny have reached the kitchens and the Doctor immediately holds his sonic screwdriver and tries to open one of the oil barrels but fails "They've been deadlock sealed!" he said He tries another and found that the other one is deadlock sealed as well "Finch must've done that. I can't open them." He said

"The vats would not withstand a direct hit from my laser. But my batteries are failing." K9 suggested

"Right. Everyone out the back door. K9, stay with me." The Doctor said

Sarah Jane, Rose and Kenny run to the backdoor, leaving the Doctor crouched before K9.

Back in the Computer lab Mickey is at the head computer trying to stop the code, without much luck, he looks very confused, and then notices that there is a protective casing covering the wires, winding around the walls of the room. He follows it and realizes that all the cables lead into one plug socket and he pulls it out, then All the computers go dead and the socket explodes with sparks "Everyone get out, now!" The trance broken, the children immediately get to their feet and move towards the door. "Come on, move! Let's go, let's go!" he ordered the Children. and they went out the room.

The Krillitanes bound down the stairs, and they go off shot, and they morph back into human form. When they move back into view, Mr Finch, Wagner, the dinner ladies and other other teachers are hurrying down the remainder of the stairs.

Back in the kitchens The Doctor moves the vats of oil within easy shot of K9.

K9 Capacity for only one shot, Master. For maximum impact, I must be placed directly beside the vat." K9 told him "But you'll be trapped inside." The Doctor said as he rushed over to K9. "That is correct." K9 told him

"I can't let you do that." The Doctor told him "No alternative possible, Master."K9 told him and

The Doctor looks over his shoulder as he hears the screeching of the Krillitanes in the other room, then He looks back at K9, realizing that this is what must be done "Goodbye, old friend." he said to K9 "Goodbye Master." K9 said back at the Doctor "You good dog." the Doctor told him

"Affirmative." K9 said before he waggles his mechanical ears and tail. The Doctor places his hand briefly on K9's head, then dashes off. K9 trundles off towards the vat.

The Doctor emerges outside and slams the door behind him, locking it with the sonic screwdriver SARAH JANE (urgently): "Where's K9?" Sarah Jane asked him

"We need to run." He told her, then he starts to run but Sarah Jane was not moving "Where is he?! What've you done?" she asked and then the Doctor grabs her and pulls her away.

Mr Finch and the other krillitanes enter the kitchen "When you find either of them... eat them if you must, but bring me their brains." Finch told the Krillitanes

Outside the school the Doctor grabs Sarah Jane's hand as they run for their lives, just like they used to.

Back in the Kitchens K9 raises his head as the Krillitanes look down at him.

"The little dog with a nasty bite." Finch said mockingly he then bends slightly "Not so powerful now, are you?"he whispered and K9 shoots his laser at the vat of oil causing it to explode all over the Krillitanes, except Finch who scream.

Mickey is caught up in the crowd of children running out of the school "Come on, guys! Let's go, let's go!"

In the kitchens The Krillitanes except Finch are wailing and writhing with agony "Burning!" The Dinner Lady cried. "You bad dog." Finch hissed "Affirmative." K9 told him, then the school explodes.

The children assembled outside all burst into cheer and applause, Mickey join in, grinning maniacally "Yes!" Kenny shouts and Melissa turns to him "Did you have something to do with it?" she asked him. "Yeah, I did." Kenny told her and Melissa's mouth drops open.

"Oh my God." She cried, then she shouts to everyone else "Kenny blew up the school! It was Kenny!"

"Kenny! Kenny! Kenny!" The children chanted and cheered and they patting him on the back. Only the Doctor, Rose and Sarah Jane stand separate from the merriment. Sarah Jane looks distraught.

"I'm sorry." The Doctor said. "Sarah Jane, I'm sorry as well." Rose agreed with her husband

"It's all right. He was just a... daft metal dog. Fine, really." Sarah Jane said and she bursts into tears and the Doctor puts his arm around her comfortingly.

Later at a park Sarah Jane walks up to the TARDIS and the Doctor steps outside the doors and faces her "Cuppa tea?"

He steps aside to let Sarah Jane walk through the doors, she takes in the interior, wide-eyed and the Doctor follows her through and shuts the door behind her and She turns to him "Doctor, You've redecorated!" She told him "Do you like it?" he asked her "Oh, I, I do. Yeah. I preferred it as it was, but uh... yeah. It'll do!" Sarah Jane said

"This is my favorite Desktop theme and I love it." Rose said "Hey, you, what's forty seven times three hundred and sixty nine?" Rose asked Sarah Jane who had the faintest idea"No idea. It's gone now, the oil's faded." "But you're still clever Sarah Jane. More than a match for my husband." Sarah Jane nods and Rose looks to her husband who is fiddling with the computer, as though prompting him to say something "Doctor...?" He looks up "Um... we're about to head off, but... you could come with us." Rose looks at her, smiling expectantly, and Sarah Jane looks from happy face to happy face. And shakes her head "No... I can't do this anymore." She replied softly and then the Doctor's and Rose's smiles fade slightly.

"Besides, I've got a much bigger adventure ahead! Time I stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own." Sarah Jane explained enthusiastically "Can I come?" Mickey asked The Doctor

Sarah Jane looks surprised "No, not with you, I mean... with you." he said as he gestures to the Doctor " 'Cause I'm not the tin dog. And I wanna see what's out there." Mickey added "Oh, go on, Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith, a Mickey Smith. You need a Smith on board!" Sarah Jane told him " Okay then, I could do with a laugh." The Doctor said "Yeah me too. Rose agreed and Mickey laughs in delight "Rose, is that okay?" He asked Rose "Yeah Mickey it's okay if you come."

The Doctor holds open the doors for Sarah Jane, who steps out of the TARDIS for the last time and he follows her and they stand outside for their final goodbyes. "It's daft. But I haven't ever thanked you for that time, and like I said, I wouldn't have missed it for the world." She said

"Something to tell the grandkids." he said, not knowing that she currently doesn't have children or grandchildren.

"Oh, I think it'll be someone else's grandkids now." She told him and he looks distantly awkward

"Right. Yes, sorry, I didn't get a chance to ask. You haven't... there hasn't been anyone...? You know...?" He asked her "Well... there was this one guy. I travelled with him for a while. But he was a tough act to follow." She answered and then she laughs slightly and the Doctor smiles softly.

"Goodbye, Doctor." She said not wanting the same thing happen to her after he abandoned her "Oh, it's not goodbye..." he said "Say it, please. This time. Say it." She begged him and he looks straight into her eyes "Goodbye. My Sarah Jane." he said as he throws his arms around her and lifts her right off the ground in a final embrace. He gives her one last smile before heading back into the TARDIS and both he and Rose pilots the Tardis and made it dematerialized.


	5. Girl in the Fireplace part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

The Doctor and Rose put the Tardis to randomize where they were going.

The Doctor emerges from the TARDIS, closely followed by Rose and Mickey. All three proceed to look around a dark, apparently disused room of the spaceship.

"It's a spaceship! Brilliant, I got a spaceship on my first go!" Mickey said excitedly.

"Looks kind of abandoned... Anyone on board?" Rose asked her husband

"Nah, nothing here. Well! Nothing dangerous. Well! Not that dangerous." The Doctor said and then he paused for a moment "You know what, honey I'll just have a quick scan... in case there's anything dangerous." He said Rose smirks as he walks over to a control panel in the centre of the room and starts tapping at some buttons.

"Honey, what's the date? How far we gone?"

"About three thousand years into Mickey's future, give or take." The Doctor said as he pulls on a switch and the lights turn on, the roof gradually opening into a window which shows a spectacular view of the stars outside.

"Fifty-first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey! Two and a half galaxies!" The Doctor told him and Mickey moved to a porthole, gazing out in awe and Rose walks over and places her hands on his shoulders, smiling, as the Doctor rummages around the control panel, picking up bits and pieces of presumably broken technology and looking unimpressed.

"Mickey Smith meet the universe. See anything you like?" Rose asked Mickey

"It's so realistic!" Mickey said in amazement.

"Dear me, had some cowboys in here! Got a ton of repair work going on." The Doctor said

He chucks the pieces down casually, noticing a screen with a diagram of the spaceship on it. Rose and Mickey join him to look at it "Now that's odd, look at that. All the warp engines are going... full capacity! There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe... and we're not moving. So where's all that power going?" The Doctor asked.

"Where'd all the crew go?" Rose asked and the Doctor leans forward and tweaks some knobs on the control panel "Good question Honey, no life readings on board." Well, we're in deep space; they didn't just nip out for a quick fag." Rose told them

"Honey, nope they haven't I've checked all the smoking pods." He said taking her seriously and then there was a pause as all three gaze around and the Doctor sniffs "Can you smell that?"

"Yeah, someone's cooking." Rose answered her husband.

"Sunday roast, definitely!" Mickey told them.

The Doctor presses something else and a door opens behind them. They walk through and see part of the wall and floor with 18th decor, as well as a familiar looking lit fireplace.

The far wall is panelled, and contains a blazing fire in an ornate fireplace, with an ormolu clock on the mantelpiece. "Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship. Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There's another room through there." The Doctor said Rose went to where her husband was "Hello." The Doctor said to a young girl with blonde hair and is in a nightgown who is kneeling by the fire on the other side of the fireplace "Hello." She replied.

"What's your name?" He asked the young girl. "Reinette." She replied.

"Reinette, that's a lovely name." Rose told her.

"Can you tell us where you are at the moment, Reinette?" Rose then Asked Reinette.

"In my bedroom." Reinette told them.

"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?" The Doctor asked

"Paris, of course." Reinette told them. "Paris, right!" The Doctor said.

"Monsieur, Madame what are you both doing in my fireplace?" Reinette asked them.

"Oh, it's just a routine fire check. Can you tell us what year it is?" He asked her "Of course I can. Seventeen hundred and twenty seven." She answered. "Right, lovely. One of my favourites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night." He said before leaving "Goodnight Monsieur. Goodnight Madame." Reinette told them.

"You said this was the fifty first century." Mickey told the Doctor.

"My husband also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink." Rose told him

"What's that?" Mickey asked

"Just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door." Rose told Mickey.

"And on the other side of the magic door is France in 1727?" Mickey guessed

"Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too." The Doctor said

"She was speaking English, I heard her." Mickey said "That's the Tardis. Translates any language for you well as long as it existed after my and the Doctor's species was born."

Rose then goes to where her husband was, as he The Doctor has found the switch that rotates the fireplace "Gotcha!" He exclaimed as the fireplace rotates to Reinette's bedroom

Once the fireplace has finished turning, the Doctor finds himself standing in a dark and shadowy bedroom, with the young Reinette asleep, they hear the ticking of a clock as they wanders towards the window and saw the Paris skyline and that it was snowing.

The neigh of a horse is heard and the young Reinette's eyes snap open to see the silhouette of the Doctor and Rose at the window and She sits up, and the Doctor and Rose turns around. "It's okay! Don't scream! It's us, it's the fireplace man and woman . Look. He walks over and lights a candle by her bed with his sonic screwdriver. Reinette still looks startled "We were talking, just a moment ago." The Doctor told her "We were in your fireplace." Rose added. "Monsieur, Madame that was weeks ago. That was months!" Reinette told them "Really? Oh." He said and then he walks back to the fireplace and knocks on it, listening to the sound produced "Must be a loose connection. Need to get a man in." He said "Who are the two of you? And what are you both doing here?" Reinette asked them and neither the Doctor or Rose reply instead staring at the clock on the mantel with their mouths open, looking slightly fearful and The ticking sound is prominent once more. "Okay, that's scary..." the Doctor said "You're scared of a broken clock?" Reinette asked him skeptically "Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a little tiny bit. 'Cause you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room..." he started.

The Doctor pauses, turning to look back at Reinette and The ticking continues "Then what's that?" Rose asked The ticking grows louder and Reinette looks around, clearly scared again and both the Doctor and Rose barely moves " 'Cause you see that's not a clock. You can tell by the resonance. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. Size of a man." The Doctor told Reinette "What is it?" Reinette asked them and the Doctor checks behind the curtains, finding nothing.

"Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticks and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do: break the clock." The Doctor said and none of the three of them notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two?

"You might start to wonder if you're really alone." He said and then he moves towards the bed and crouches down, giving Reinette instructions as he pulls his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "Stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don't put your hands or feet over the edge." He and Rose peers underneath the bed before turning on their sonic screwdrivers to scan and suddenly something smacks the Doctor and Rose backwards, knocking the screwdriver out of their hands and Reinette gasps and the Doctor scrambles back to look underneath. We see the feet of something standing there, apparently wearing typical aristocratic French dress and The Doctor and Rose slowly resumes crouching, looking at Reinette with wide eyes. "Reinette... Don't look round." He whispered to her and a figure is standing on the other side of the bed, wearing a creepy clown-like mask and leering down at Reinette, who looks terrified. "You stay exactly where you are." The Doctor stands up to look straight at the figure.

He glances back at Reinette, then at the figure, and then back at Reinette, discomforted by something "Hold still, let me look..." the Doctor said He bends down and grasps Reinette's head between his hands, staring intently into her eyes with a disturbed expression before looking back at the figure. "You've been scanning her brain!" The Doctor said in shock and he pauses, looking once more into Reinette's eyes before standing up straight again and Rose did the same.

"What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain?" The Doctor asked horrified and incredulous "What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?" Rose asked the droid.

"I don't understand... it wants me?!" Reinette said in fear and she Looks round at the figure, but does not even flinch "You want me?" She told the drooid and The droid's head twitches to one side and it speaks in a distinctly mechanical voice.

"Not yet. You are incomplete." The droid told Reinette.

'Incomplete'? What's that mean, incomplete?" The Doctor asked the droid but, the droid does not answer, but continues staring at Reinette. The Doctor stands up and speaks in a firm but slightly irritated voice, picking up his sonic screwdriver and pointing it threateningly at the droid.

"You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, 'incomplete'?" He told the droid, trying to get an answer but The droid again does not answer, instead walking in jerky movements around the bed and facing the Doctor.

The droid extends an arm and a menacing looking blade slides out near the Doctor's face. He tilts his head away.

"Monsieur, be careful!" Reinette cried to the Doctor.

"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares. The Doctor backs away, the droid pursuing. It swipes at the Doctor who jumps back, reaching the fireplace. "Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" The droid slashes at the Doctor again and he jumps aside, and the droid's blade hits the mantel, getting stuck. "What do monsters have nightmares about?" Reinette asked and as the droid struggles, the Doctor takes the opportunity to turn the fireplace around. "Me, ha!" he answered and Reinette smiles as the droid and the Doctor disappear from her view and Rose was stuck with Reinette.

"Doctor! Where's Rose? Mickey asked As the fireplace finishes turning the Doctor runs and grabs a gun-like object from the wall, using it to spray ice at the droid. It convulses in a last, vain attempt to free itself before freezing completely. "Excellent, ice gun!" Mickey said Appreciatively and the Doctor calmly throws the 'gun' to Mickey, who catches it. "Fire extinguisher." The Doctor corrects Mickey. "Where did that thing come from?" Mickey asked looking at the droid "Here." the Doctor answered "So why is it dressed like that?" Mickey asked the Time Lord.

"Field trip to France, some kind of basic camouflage protocol; nice needlework! Shame about the face." The Doctor told him and The Doctor walks back over to the droid, squinting at it and he pulls off the wig to reveal its actual head: an ornate clockwork mechanism, covered with a clear plastic egg shape.

The Doctor cannot help but admire it with near giddy excitement "Oh, you are beautiful!" Mickey edge closer in curiosity, and the Doctor puts on his glasses to examine it more closely.

"No really, you are, you're gorgeous! Look at that! Space age clockwork, I love it! I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and, by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you."

He takes one last wistful look at the droid before holding up his sonic screwdriver "But that won't stop me." he said and the droid creaks back into life and teleports away.

Mickey blink and look around, and the Doctor stuffs the screwdriver back into his pocket, walking swiftly back to the fireplace and preparing to go back to the other side. "Short range teleport, can't have got far. Could still be on board. Don't go looking for it!" The Doctor said as he pointed at Mickey

"Where's Rose? Where're you going?" Mickey asked Mickey asked.

"Back in a sec. I've got to get Rose." The Doctor said and then he turns the fireplace, returning to Reinette's bedroom and Mickey walks away doing the opposite of what the Doctor told him not to do.

The Doctor now stands by the fireplace in a plush bedroom of red and gold and made for a young woman.

He steps away from it and calls out. "Reinette... Just checking you're okay..."

He idly brushes a hand across the strings of a harp as Reinette, now a beautiful young woman, walks into the room. She pauses, obviously recognising the Doctor.

He seems not to notice her until she clears her throat. "Oh! Hello!" He quickly puts away his glasses, clearly surprised and at least marginally distracted by her appearance. "Um, I was just looking for Reinette. Uh, this is still her room, isn't it? I've been away, not sure how long."

Rose came in and slaps him twice as hard as when Jackie slapped him before the slitheen arrived on earth.

"Reinette! We're ready to go!" Reinette's mother called from outside the room.

"Go to the carriage, mother, I will join you there." Reinette told her mother A marvelling grin of realisation spreads across the Doctor's face.

"It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood. You are to be congratulated on your persistence." Reinette told him

"Reinette...!Well." He starts and then he looks her up and down "Goodness, how you've grown." He told Reinette.

"Rose really sorry how long has it been?" He asked Rose

"It's been a decade. I'm 230 years old now." Rose told her husband.

Reinette approaches him "And you have not appear to have aged a single day. Rose haven't as well That is tremendously impolite of the two of you." She told them.

"Right... yes... sorry. Um... umm... umm.. listen, lovely to catch up, but er, better be off, eh? Don't want your mother finding you up here with a strange man, do we?" The Doctor said as he was unsure how to react and Rose agreed with her husband.

"Strange? How could you be a stranger to me? I've known both of you since I was seven years old. Rose has become one of my oldest friends." Reinette told the Doctor

"Yeah... I suppose you have." The Doctor said then they laughed quietly. "I came the quick route." He added Reinette touches the Doctor's cheek, examining him. His eyes widen. "Well, you seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real." Reinette told the Doctor.

A Servant came in "Mademoiselle! Your mother grows impatient." The servant told Reinette.

"A moment!" Reinette called back at the servant and She looks back at the Doctor "So many questions. So little time." Reninette added and then she pulls the Doctor towards her and kisses him passionately on the lips and Rose Looks pissedas Reinette kisses her husband and childhood sweetheart.

Reinette pushes the Doctor against the wall, and the Doctor involuntarily starts to kiss her back "Mademoiselle Poisson!" The servant called out as he enters the room and Reinette breaks the kiss and runs to the open door, grabbing a purse from her dressing table as she goes, without so much as a backward glance.

The Doctor watches her, awestruck, as she leaves and then the servant notices the Doctor. "Poisson?" the Doctor asked "Reinette Poisson?"

The servant looked bemused by the Doctor's presence. "No... no, no, no, no, no way, Reinette Poisson?!"

He then runs right up to the manservant, as though interrogating him but not letting him get a word in "Later Madame Etioles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France?"

He then runs back towards the fireplace and where Rose was "Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan? Fantastic gardener!"

The Doctor Laughs and Rose slaps him again "Yep." She says.

"Who the hell are you?!" The servant asked the Doctor as the Doctor reaches for the fireplace; Rose was at the fireplace as well and he finds the trigger back to the ship "I'm the Doctor. And Madame de Pompadour just snogged me!" The fireplace revolves again, taking the Doctor with it as he laughs manically.

The Doctor and Rose steps back onto the ship and found that Mickey is nowhere to be seen "Mickey? Every time, every time, it's rule one, don't wander off! I tell them, I do, rule one!" The Doctor said. "There could be anything on this ship!" He added and then he and Rose walks around the corner and are met by a white horse in the middle of the corridor and the Doctor blinks while the horse neighed.

The Doctor and Rose both walk cross a junction of corridors, and are completely lost.

"Mickey?" Rose calls and the horse they found follows them. The Doctor stops to look down a corridor before turning to the horse "Will you stop following us ? Arkytior's not your mother!" The Doctor exclaimed at the horse,irritably. The horse noses him The Doctor moves away, having spotted a set of white, French double doors. He opens them "So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?" He asked the Horse.

Then the Doctor and Rose walks out onto a grassy courtyard, they both see a familiar figure, smiles and walks to a low wall with a pillar and an urn on top.

Reinette and her friend Catherine laugh, walking arm in arm. As they speak, the Doctor and Rose watch them.

"Oh, Catherine, you are too wicked!" Reinette said and then suddenly turns around as though she has spotted something out of the corner of her eye. The Doctor and Rose ducks down behind the pillar just in time.

"Oh, speaking of wicked, I hear Madame de Chateneux is ill and close to death." Catherine told Reinette and Reinette's attention having wandered, the Doctor and Rose straightens up and leans on the wall.

"Yes. I am devastated." Reinette said and then she Laughs.

"Oh, indeed. I myself am frequently inconsolable." Catherine said and the Doctor smiles.

"The King will therefore be requiring a new mistress. You love the King, of course?" Catherine added.

"He is the King. And I love him with all my heart. And I look forward to meeting him." Reinette said and Catherine laughs, Reinette turns back as she's convinced she's being watched. The Doctor and Rose both duck behind the pillar again.

"Is something wrong, my dear?" Catherine asked Reinette "Not wrong, no." The Doctor straightens up a little and after a pause, Reinette and Catherine both link their arms and walk again.

The Doctor straightens up fully and leans on the wall again.

"Every woman in Paris knows your ambitions." Catherine told Reinette.

"Every woman in Paris shares them." Reinette told her.

"You know of course that the King is to attend the Yew Tree ball?" Catherine said as both the voices of her and Reinette fade into the distance.

Then the Doctor and Rose are confronted by a man "Have either of you seen a horse?" The man asked them

"Well, we-" The Doctor starts but the man interrupts him "Damned animal. I'll whip it within an inch of its life as soon as I find it."

"Oh, I wish you hadn't said that." The Doctor said to the man.

The Doctor opens the French doors and closed it as both he and Rose reentered the ship.

He approached the horse "Okay, rule one, don't wander off." He said to the horse before he and Rose went back to searching for Mickey.


	6. Girl in the Fireplace part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC

The Doctor and Rose soon found Mickey staring at King Louis XV and two of his servants out a window "Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?" Mickey asked.

"The King of France." The Doctor said.

"King Louis XV(15th)." Rose said at the same time as her husband

"Where were you, Rose? And what the hell have you two been doing?" Mickey asked them.

"Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat... Rose became the oldest friend of that french aristocratic. I picked a fight with a clockwork man..." The horse that the Doctor and Rose found neighed from around the corner. "Oh, and we met a horse." The Doctor added as the horse trots towards them.

"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked.

"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective." Rose countered

Then both she and the Doctor looks through the window.

The Doctor points at the window "See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history... He places a finger on the glass as Reinette enters the room/the mirror.

"Hers. Time window... deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?"

"Who is she?" Mickey asked.

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived." Rose said "And I was friends with her for 10 years." Rose added

"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?" Mickey asked

"No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress." The Doctor said .

"Oh, I get it. Camilla." Rose told her husband and the Doctor snickered, and as the King leaves "I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace... even her own title, Madame de Pompadour." The Doctor told Mickey.

Reinette stands before the mirror, preening herself.

Queen consort Marie Leszczyńska must have loved her." Rose muttered.

"Oh, she did. They get on very well." The Doctor told Rose.

"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey asked.

"France. It's a different planet. " the Doctor said and then he spots that the face of the clock on the mantelpiece inside the room where Reinette was has been shattered.

inside the window which was at the palace of Versailles (which was were the treaty that ended the first World War for Germany was signed) Reinette hears a ticking click sound and she turns, around and her eyes widened with fear.

"How long have you been standing there?" She asked a figure in the corner of the room anf was facing the wall "Show yourself!"

The figure turns suddenly and reveals itself to be one of the clockwork droids. It starts to advance towards her.

Back on the spaceship the Doctor grabs the fire extinguisher from Mickey and swings the mirror around so he can step back into Reinette's world.

"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?" The Doctor asked Reinette.

"Fireplace man! Rose!" Reinette exclaimed

The Doctor steps past her and sprays the droid with the fire extinguisher until it is immobile, then he throws the extinguisher back to Mickey and then suddenly the droid starts to click and whirr loudly "What's it doing?" Mickey asked.

"Switching back on. Melting the ice." Rose told Mickey

"And then what?" Mickey asked

"Then it kills everyone in the room." The Doctor answered and the clockwork droid's arm shoots out towards the Doctor's throat, he jumps back and backs towards Reinette.

"Focuses the mind, doesn't it?" He then Addressed the clockwork droid "Who are you? Identify yourself."

The droid cocks its head but does not answer.(to Reinette): "Order it to answer me and Rose." The doctor said to Reinette.

"Why should it listen to me?" Reinette asked.

"I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it." The Doctor said

"Answer their questions. Answer any and all questions put to you." Reinette ordered the droid and then the droid lowers its arm.

"I am repair droid seven." The Droid told them.

"So what happened to the ship, then? There was a lot of damage." The Doctor asked

"Ion storm, eighty two percent systems failure." The Droid explained

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?" Rose asked.

"We did not have the parts." The droid told them and Mickey laughed at that "Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts."

"What's happened to the crew, where are they?" The Doctor asked and the droid repeated itself "There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?" The Doctor asked and the droid repeated itself again "Fifty people don't just disappear! Where...?" The Doctor started and then it hits him "Oh. You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew."

"The crew?" Mickey asked "I found a camera with an eye in it... and there was a heart... wired in to machinery." Mickey added.

"It was just what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No-one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?" The Doctor asked Mickey.

"Sunday roast..." Mickey said

"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque." Rose said and Reinette looks slightly sick.

"But what are you doing here? You've opened up time windows, that takes colossal energy. Why come here, you could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?" The Doctor asked

"One more part is required." The droid explained and the Droid's head jerks towards Reinette.

The Doctor, Rose and Mickey stare at her "Then why haven't you taken it?" The Doctor asked the droid as he looks back at him.

"She is incomplete." the Droid stated

"What... so, that's the plan then? Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's 'done yet'?" the Doctor asked the droid.

"Why her?" The Doctor turns to his wife, surprised at the abruptness of this question.

"You've got all of history to choose from, why specifically her?" Rose added

"We are the same." the Droid said

"We are not the same, we are in no sense the same!" Reinette told the droid.

"We are the same." the droid repeated itself.

"Get out of here! Get out of here this instance!" Reinette ordered the droid as she was angry and was advancing towards the droid.

"Reinette, no." The Droid activates a teleport and disappears.

"It's back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey and Arthur, get after it. Follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does."The Doctor ordered his wife.

"Athur? Whose Arthur?" Rose asked her husband

"Good name for a horse, Honey." The Doctor said to his wife

"No, you're not keeping the horse!" Rose said in exasperation.

Rose, honey let you keep Mickey! Now go, go, go!" he said to his wife and she and Mickey run back through the mirror portal.

The Doctor closes it behind them and turns back to Reinette.

"Reinette, you're going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they're looking for, there's only one way I can do that. Won't hurt a bit." Reinette nods her assent and the Doctor places his fingers on her temples and closes her eyes and Reinette also closes hers.

"Fireplace man... you are inside my mind." Reinette said after a moment of the Doctor using telepathy on her.

"Oh dear, Reinette. You've had some cowboys in here."

Back on the ship Mickey and Rose walka down a corridor and Mickey gives a short laugh "So, your husband, eh?" Mickey said

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked

"Well! Madame de Pompadour. Sarah Jane Smith. Cleopatra." Mickey told her and she stopped as Mickey was pissing her off "Cleopatra, he mentioned her once." she said.

"Yeah, but he called her 'Cleo'." he said

"That was when he thought that me: his wife died on gallifrey." Rose said and then a droid appears behind Mickey.

"Mickey!" Rose screams and it clutches Mickey by the neck as another comes up behind Rose, grabbing her before she can use her weapon her husband gave her and part of its arm extends, with two vicious needles on the end, which points at Rose's neck. The one behind Mickey does the same. The needles are pushed in, and Mickey and Rose slump unconscious to the floor.

Back at the Palace of Versailles, the Doctor and Reinette are still linked "You are in my memories. You walk among them." Reinette said

"If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door and close it. I won't look. Ooh.. actually... there's a door just there." the Doctor said and Reinette opens her eyes and grins slyly.

"You might want to clo... Ooh. Actually, several." the Doctor told her but found that there were several doors she wanted to keep closed.

"To walk among the memories of another living soul... do you ever get used to this?" Reinette asked the Doctor.

"I don't make a habit of it." he replied

"How can you resist?" Reinette asked him

"What age are you?" he asked her

"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation. How promising." She told him

"No, not my question, theirs. You're twenty-three and for some reason, that means you're not old enough. Reinette flinches." He told her "Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect."

"Oh, such a nearly lonely childhood..." She said

"It'll pass. Stay with me." He said

"Oh, Doctor. Almost lonely. So very, very nearly alone." She said

"What do you mean, alone? You've never been alone in your life..." He started and His eyes snap open and realized what she called him "When did you start calling me 'Doctor'?" He asked her.

"Such a lonely little boy with a girlfriend. nearly Lonely then and is nearly lonely still." Reinette told him and then she opens her eyes "How can you bear it?" She added

The Doctor steps away from her "How did you do that?" He asked her as no one's done that to him before while walking through someone's memories using telepathy.

"A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction..." She explained and he stares at her, vulnerable. "Oh, Doctor." She started as she steps towards him Rose's lonely Doctor. Dance with me."

"I can't." He told her

"Dance with me." she said again

"This is the night you dance with the King and I'm married." he told her

"Then first, I shall make him jealous and you can make your wife jealous." She said

"I can't." he stated

"Doctor... Doctor who?" She said sadly and then she looks at him for a few moments. "It's more than just a secret, isn't it?"

"What did you see?" the Doctor asked her.

"That there comes a time, Time Lord, when every little boy that is nearly alone must learn how to dance." She told him and then, she smiles and takes his hand, leading him away.

Back on the spaceship Rose begins to regain conscious and her eyes open and she becomes aware of a loud ticking and she slowly focuses on one of the clockwork droids, staring down at her. "What's going on?" She asked the clockwork droid

She then called her husband "Doctor?" She sees that she has been manacled onto some sort of operating table which has been tilted at a sharp angle.

Mickey is manacled onto another at the other side of the room.

"Rose? They're gonna chop us up. Just like the crew, they're gonna chop us up and stick us all over their stupid spaceship. And where's the Doctor? Where's your precious husband now? He's been gone for flipping hours, that's where he is!" Mickey exclaimed as he's scared and is in fear.

One of the clockwork droids steps before Rose "You are compatible." The droid said.

"Well... you... you might wanna think about that. You really, really might because... me and Mickey... we didn't come here alone, oh no! And trust me, you wouldn't wanna mess with my husband." Rose said stalling for time

Then the droid thrusts a sharp and lethal looking tool in front of Rose's face. Rose stares at it apprehensively.

"Ever heard of the Daleks? Remember them? They had a name for my husband. They had myths about him, and a name. They called him the..." she started but she heard a loud banging and the sound of her husband singing and pretending to be drunk.

"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night..." The Doctor said singing in the distance.

Rose was getting distracted by the noise her husband was making in the distance "They called him the... they called him the... the..." Rose stuttered as The Doctor staggers into the room, dancing with an imaginary partner, wearing a pair of sunglasses and his tie around his head.

"And still have begged for moooore... I could've spread my wings and done a thou..." he said singing

"Have you met the French?" He asked and Mickey looks bemused.

"My... god, they know how to party." The Doctor added.

"Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm." Rose said sarcastically.

"Arkytior, this incarnation of you is really Jackie's daughter." The Doctor said distastefully

"What've you been doing? Where've you been?!" Rose yelled at her husband as she was crossed with him. THE DOCTOR: "Well... among other things, I think just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early." He said and Rose lies back, exasperated.

"Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before!" He leans over her "Always take a banana to a party, Arkytior. Bananas are good." He then spots the droids. "Oh ho ho ho ho, brilliant. It's you! You're my favourite, you are, you are the best! Do you know why? 'Cause you're so thick. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania." he told the clockwork droids then he thought for a quick second "And so's your dad." he added before he strolled away.

"Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for? Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? 'Cause this ship is thirty-seven years old. And they think that when Reinette is thirty-seven, when she's 'complete', then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it?" He stares one of the droids mockingly in the face "Hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do." The Doctor explained

"The brain is compatible." One of the clockwork droids stated.

"Compatible?" he asked as he approaches the droids "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." He removes the droid's mask and pours the 'wine' into the clockwork inside the head of the droid. He replaces the mask and pats it on the head. The droid wind downs and Rose leans back in relief.

The Doctor stops pretending to be drunk "Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't." he explained to Mickey and a droid from the corner of the room begins to advance, but the Doctor quickly deactivates it using a nearby lever. "Right, you two, that's enough lying about... He releases Rose and Mickey quickly with his sonic screwdriver, and they slide down the tables onto the floor. (Rose's screwdriver is in her pocket and couldn't reach it)

"Time we got the rest of the ship turned off." The Doctor said

"Are those things safe?" Mickey asked

The Doctor pulled his tie down and pushed the sunglasses up "Yep. Safe. Safe and thick. Way I like them. Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down." He then feels his pockets "Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs?" he asked as he Looks around for them. "I had them a minute ago, I was using them as castanets."

"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?" Mickey asked.

"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they'll be lucky to hit the right century. Trial and error after that." The Doctor explained as he tries to operate the computer "The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?" He asked and then they heard an ominous pinging sound. "What's that?" Rose asked her husband who was near the clicking sounds "I don't know... incoming message?" he guessed

"From who?" Mickey asked

"Report from the field... one of them must still be out there with Reinette! That's why I can't close the windows, there's an override!" He said as he figures out the problem and behind him, one of the clockwork droids springs to life with a whirring sound and Rose gasps.

The clockwork droid expels the 'wine' the Doctor poured into its mechanics over the Doctor's shoe "Well, that was a bit clever." the Doctor said and then the rest of the clockwork droids spring to life, filling the room with ticking.

THE DOCTOR (CONT'D): "Right... many things about this are not good." He said and then they heard the pinging sound again.

"Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?" He asked the clockwork droid

"She is complete. It begins." One of the clockwork droids stated before all of the clockwork droids transmatted out.

"What's happening?" Mickey asked

"One of them must've found the right time window, and now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head." Rose answered Mickey's question.

"Rose, Why did your husband called you..." Mickey asked but didn't know how to pronounce 'Arkytior'.

"Mickey, if you mean 'why my husband called me Arkytior' it's because it was my nickname when me and him went to the academy." Rose explained "I'll tell you the rest after all this is over." She told him

At the Palace of Versailles Reinette stands by a window, looking up at the sky. A shadow passes over the shaft of light spilling into the room through the doorway as someone slowly approaches. At the sound of the footsteps, Reinette turns. Disturbed, she checks the clock face. A figure is reflected in it's glass "Reniette..." Rose starts and Reinette gasps " Please, don't scream or anything, we haven't got a lot of time." Rose told her after taking a seat "I've come to warn you that they'll be here in five years."

"Five years?" Reinette echoed

"Some time after your thirty-seventh birthday. I um... I can't give you an exact date. It's a bit random. But they're coming. It's gonna happen. In a way, for us, it's already happening. I'm sorry, it's hard to explain. My husband does this better.

"Then be exact, and I will be attentive." Reinette told her

"There isn't time." Rose sais, apologetically

"There are five years." Reinette said as she was persistent.

"For you. I haven't got five minutes." Rose told her

"Then also be concise." Reinette said before she takes a seat opposite Rose, ready to listen.

"Erm... there's say, um... a... a... a vessel. A ship. A sort of sky ship. And it's full of... well, you. Different bits of your life in different rooms, all jumbled up. I told you it was complicated, sorry." Rose said, not knowing how to explain it like her husband does.

"There is a vessel in your world... where the days of my life are pressed together like the chapters of a book so that he may step from one to the other without increase of age... while I, weary traveller... must always take the slower path? So, in five years these creatures will return. What can be done?" Reinette asked her

"Just keep them talking. They're kind of programmed to respond to you now. You won't be able to stop them, but you might be able to delay them a bit." Rose informed her.

"Until?" Reinette asked

"Until me and the Doctor can get there." Rose explained

"You're coming, then?" Reinette asked

"I promise cross my hearts." said as she makes an 'X' with her fingers across both of her hearts "We'll be there when you need us. That's the way it's gotta be."

"It's the way it's always been. The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other." Reinette said and Rose snickered "Tell me about it. I grew up with him'(Rose told her and then she Paused for a moment "The thing is... you weren't supposed to have either. Those creatures are messing with history. None of this was ever supposed to happen to you."

"Supposed to happen? What does that mean? It happened, old friend. And I would not have it any other way. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel." Reniette said and she stands with her back to Rose, facing the fireplace.

"Rose? Rose?" Mickey called Rose

"I'm very afraid. But you and I both know, don't we, Rose? The Doctor is worth the monsters." Reinette said and Rose nods then Rose leaves to go back to the spaceship.

Soon Mickey was looking through the time window into the ballroom "I don't get it. How come they got in there?" Mickey asked.

"They teleported - you saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short-range teleports will do the trick." The Doctor said

"Well, we'll go in the TARDIS!" Mickey suggested

"We can't use the TARDIS, we're part of events now." The Doctor and Rose told him

Mickey then had another idea "Well, can't we just smash through it?" Mickey asked

"Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck." The Doctor said

"We don't have a truck." Mickey told him

"I know we don't have a truck!" The Doctor shouts.

Honey, we've gotta try something!"

"No, smash the glass, smash the time window, they'd be no way back."He muttered and Mickey stares at him and he got the horse and Rose climbed the hose behind her husband.

The horse galloped towards the time window and broke the time window to a ball where reinette and King Louis XV and several other guests were, and Reinette was on her knees and her mouth drops open.

The horse comes to a halt and both the Doctor and Rose drops down.

"Madame de Pompadour. You look younger every day." The Doctor said.

"Good to see you again, Reinette." Rose said and Reinette smiles. : "What the hell is going on?" King Louis XV asked, confused

"Oh, this is my lover, the King of France." Reinette said to the Doctor and Rose

"Yeah? Well, I'm the Lord of Time." The Doctor said

"I'm the Lady of Time." Rose said at the same time

The Doctor approaches the clockwork droid in front of them "And we're here to fix the clock." The Doctor added and he removes the mask of the droid, revealling the clockwork underneath, which elicits a gasp from the crowd.

The droid points it's weapon at the Doctor "Forget it. It's over. For you, for me and for my wife." He said and then he and Rose glances up at the broken mirror seeing that there was only a brick wall behind it. "Talk about seven years bad luck." The Doctor said

"The Try three thousand..." Rose finished and the clockwork droid cocks its head to look at the mirror.

A few moments later The droid repeatedly tries to use it's teleport, to no avail and turns to the Doctor. "The link with the ship is broken. No way back. You don't have the parts. How many ticks left in that clockwork heart?" The Doctor said

"A day? An hour? It's over. Accept that. neither me or my husband aren't winding you up." Rose said and soon finally, the clockwork winds down and the droid goes dead and The other droids follow suit and slump forwards. One of them falls backwards causing the clockwork to smash over the floor.

The guests whisper amongst one another as the Doctor holds out a hand to Reinette. "You all right?" Rose asked and Reinette nods and takes her husband's hand and He pulls her to her feet "What's happened to them?" Reinette asked.

"They've stopped. They have no purpose now." The Doctor told her as The Doctor, Rose and Reinette stand in the middle of the destruction.

Later the Doctor and Rose both stood by a window, holding glasses of wine and looking up at stars and Reinette comes up behind them, also holding a glass of wine. She follows their gazes.

"You know all their names, don't you? I saw that in your mind Doctor. The name of every star. How about you, Rose do you know all their names as well?" Reinette asked Rose.

"What's in a name? Names are just titles. Titles don't tell you anything." The Doctor said.

"Like, 'The Doctor' and 'Rose'." Reinette said

"Like, 'Madame de Pompadour'." The Doctor and Rose said and then Reinette laughed.

"I have often wished to see those stars a little closer. Just as you have, Doctor I think." Reinette said

"From time to time." The Doctor said

"In saving me, you both trapped yourselves. Did you both know that would happen?" Reinette asked them

"Mm. Pretty much." The Doctor answered

"Yet, still you both came."

"Yeah, we did, didn't we?" Rose said and then both The Doctor and Rose smiled Catch us doing that again."

"There were many doors between my world and yours. Can't both of you use one of the others?" Reinette asked

"When the mirror broke, the shock will have severed all the links with the ship. There'll be a few more broken mirrors and torn tapestries around here, I'm afraid." The Doctor explained

"Wherever there was a time window. we'll... we'll, er... pay for any damage." The Doctor added and Reinette laughs. "Um... oh, that's a thought, we're gonna need money. I was always a bit vague about money. Where do you get money?" The Doctor asked.

"So, here you both are. Stuck on the slow path, with me." Reinette told them.

"Yep. The slow path." The Doctor and Rose agreed and they grins and holds up their glasses of wine. "Here's to the slow path." The Doctor and Rose said and Reinette laughs and they chink their glasses together and sip their wine.

"It's a pity... I think I would've enjoyed the slow path." Reinette said

"Well, we're not going anywhere." The Doctor told her

"Oh, aren't you Doctor and Rose? Reinette said as She sets down her wine "Doctor and Rose follow me." The Doctor and Rose follows her out of the room.

They entered Reinette's bedroom and stand in the doorway "It's not a copy. It's the original. I had it moved here and was exact in every detail." Reinette told them "The fireplace..." The Doctor started and both he and Rose walks towards the fireplace slowly "The fireplace from your bedroom. When did you do this?" Rose asked. "Many years ago. In the hope that a door once opened, may someday be opened again. One never quite knows when one needs one's Doctor or Rose." Reinette said and they smile at each other). "It appears undamaged, do either of you think it will still work?" Reinette asked

"You broke the bond with the ship when you moved it. Which means it was off-line when the mirror broke. That's what saved it. But..." The Doctor starts then he moves closer to the fireplace "the link is basically physical, and it's still physically here." Rose added and Reinette watches the Doctor as Rose goes towards him, not saying anything but with a hint of sadness in her eyes. The Doctor tapped on the woodwork of the fireplace "Which might just mean, if I'm lucky... if I'm very, very, very, very, very, very lucky..." He said and he soon seems to find the spot he is looking for and he beams "Aha!" he exclaimed

"What?" Reinette asked "Loose connection!" He said and he took out his sonic screwdriver to the loose connection. "Need to get a man in!" He exclaimed and then bangged on the mantelpiece, then stands ready for the fireplace to turn.

"Wish us luck!" "No..." Reinette said and the Doctor and Rose's grins fades their faces, but too late and the fireplace revolves.

As soon as the Doctor and Rose are on the other side, the Doctor crouches and calls through the flames "Madame de Pompadour!" Reinette crouches on the other side. "Still wanna see those stars?" He asked her, "More than anything." Reinette replied "Give me and Rose two minutes. Pack a bag!" He said REINETTE: "Am I going somewhere?" Reinette asked "Go to the window. Pick a star. Any star." He said then he stands and he and Rose dashes off to the TARDIS.

Rose hugs Mickey tightly "How long did you wait?" Rose asked Mickey

"Five and a half hours!" Mickey said.

Rose stopped hugging him "Right, always wait five and a half hours." Rose said

"Where have both of you been?" Mickey asked.

"Explain later." The Doctor told him "Into the TARDIS, be with you in a sec Rose go with him."

He rushes back to the fireplace. Mickey and Roes goes into the TARDIS without hesitation.

"Reinette?" The Doctor called as he kneels before the flames, tries to peer through "You there, Reinette?" He then stood up and triggers the fireplace again and it revolves again.

The Doctor finds himself back in the palace - except the room is completely dark. He stopped for a moment and then wanders out into the halls.

"Reinette?" The Doctor called but There was no one around except for King Louis XV, who is standing by the window, looking outside.

"Oh. Hello." The Doctor said.

"You just missed her. She'll be in Paris by six." King Louis XV told him.

"Ah." The King stares at the Doctor and takes a few steps towards him. KING LOUIS XV (awestruck): "Good Lord... she was right. She said you and your wife never looked a day older." King Louis XV said snd The Doctor raises his eyebrows.

"So many years since I saw you and your wife last, yet not a day of it on your face. I bet she doesn't look a day older as well." The King said then he walks slowly over to a sideboard and opens a drawer and he takes out a letter.

"She spoke of you and your wife many times." King Louis XV told him and the Doctor's smile is fading as he begins to understand. KING LOUIS XV (CONT'D): "Often wished that you and your wife visit again. You know how women are." King Louis XV told him and then holds the letter out to the Doctor, who takes it and looks at it. The King is distracted by the thrash of a whip, a neighing from outside and then the sound of hooves. He goes back to the window.

"There she goes." The King starts as looks out the window and saw rain pouring the King watches the hearse carry Reinette's coffin away through the gates of the palace. "Leaving Versailles for the last time. Only forty-three when she died."

The Doctor walks slowly up behind the King to watch the hearse, face solemn with a pain that he can't quite hide. "Too young... too young. Illness took her in the end. She always did work too hard." King Louis XV told him and His eyes are glistening with tears, he then turns to the Doctor. "What does she say?" King Louis XV asked him and Without a word and without looking away from the window, the Doctor silently tucks the letter inside his jacket.

"Of course. Quite right." King Louis XV said and Then after a few more moments, the Doctor turns and walks away to go back to the ship to get back to the Tardis.

The Doctor closes the door of the TARDIS wearily behind him and walks slowly up to the console. "Why her?" Rose asked her husband as She and Mickey are standing by the console. "Why did they think they could fix the ship with the head of Reinette?" Rose asked.

"We'll probably never know. There was massive damage in the computer memory base. Probably got confused. Either that or the ship's name is S.S Madame De Pompadour." He said and then he goes to the console. "The TARDIS can close down the time windows now the droids are gone. Should stop it causing any more trouble." He told Mickey and He taps on the computer, acting for the world as if everything is okay. But Rose knows there's something wrong.

after a moment of watching her husband Rose went to him "Are you all right, Theta?" She asked her husband quietly and he looks up "I was too late." He told her and He smiles briefly, and fiddles with the controls again. Mickey realises he wants to be alone and tugs on Rose's arm.

"Come on, Rose. It's time you showed me around the rest of this place." Rose leaves her husband , and glances over her shoulder as Mickey leads her from the console room. The Doctor continues to pretend to work at the computer for a few moments, and then glances around to make sure they are gone. Then he slowly takes the letter out of his pocket and carefully opens it and reads it.

"My Dear Doctor and my old friend Rose. The path has never seemed more slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that the two of you and I are unlikely to meet again. But I think I shall not listen to reason. Doctor, I have seen the world inside your head, and know that all things are possible. Hurry though. My days grow shorter now, and I am so very weak. Godspeed, my angels."

The Doctor, having finished reading, tucks the letter away again to share with Rose later when they go to bed and he turns back to the console, so very heavy of heart. He takes one last look at the image of the fireplace on the monitor, which is still lit with merrily dancing flames. He presses a few keys, and they go out, leaving the fireplace shrouded in darkness. He stands there watching it for a few more moments before looking up at the rotor.

Madame de Pompadour 1721-1764


	7. Rise of the Cybermen part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

A few weeks later the Doctor and Rose were telling Mickey about their time at the academy.

"Rose remember our tutor from the academy Professor 'Edgeworth' Azmael?" The Doctor asked his wife, she nodded "I encountered him in my fourth incarnation and he was drunk so I had to throw him into a fountain to sober him up. I was also with him as he died: a few regenerations ago, my sixth actually." He told her

"How long ago was that?" Rose asked.

"About a few centuries ago." He told her "Remember that time when we had to learn to pilot a tardis?" She asked

"Yeah, I do, you passed and I got a 51% on the test on the second try. Meanwhile you got a hundred on the test." He said and then he burst out laughing.

"How long ago was this?" Mickey asked

"Right before graduation and before we got married. The Doctor answered he then noticed that Mickey was holding onto a control "Um What are you doing that for?" He asked Mickey

"Cause you told me to." Mickey told him

"When was that?" The Doctor asked

"About half an hour ago." Mickey replied

"Um... You can let go now. " The Doctor said and Mickey let go of the control.

"Well, how long's it been since I could've stopped?" Mickey asked

"Ten minutes? Twenty? ... Twenty-nine?"

"You just forgot me!" Mickey exclaimed at the Doctor

"No, no, no! Me and we're just... We were just..." The Doctor started

"Mickey we were recalibrating. He knows exactly what he was doing." Rose said

Then the TARDIS console explodes violently and both sparks and flames fly everywhere.

The TARDIS falls through fire as the TARDIS fall out of the the time vortex.

The Doctor scrambles to his knees and frantically tries to operate the console.

"What's happened?!" Mickey asked

"The time vortex is gone!" The Doctor said

Yeah, the time vortex is gone but that's impossible, it's just gone!" Rose said

The TARDIS falls vertically through the void very fast.

"Brace yourself! We're gonna crash!" The Doctor screamed and The Tardis crashes into a parallel universe.

The Doctor, Rose and Mickey are thrown backwards and gas masks fall from the ceiling and the lights on the ceiling go out and and the room goes very dark.

"Everyone all right? Arkytior, Mickey?" The Doctor asked to see if Rose and Mickey were all right.

Mickey was at the other side of the console "I'm fine. I'm okay, sorry." He said and then they all stand slowly. The Doctor and Rose both looks up at the rotor and the console.

"She's dead." He said and they heard a clicking sound as the engines cool down, smoke Smoke rises from the console.

"The TARDIS is dead." Rose added and the Doctor walks slowly around the console.

"You both can fix it? Mickey asked

"There's nothing to fix. She's perished." The Doctor told Mickey as he pulls a lever back and forth fruitlessly.

"The last TARDIS in the universe... extinct." Rose added

"We can get help?" Mickey asked the Doctor and Rose.

"Where from?" The Doctor asked

"Well, we've landed, we've gotta be somewhere." Mickey said

"We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no-place... the silent realm... the lost dimension..." the Doctor said as Mickey goes to the door and he grins as he opened the door "Otherwise known as London!" Mickey said before he laughs and steps out of the door and both Rose and her husband follows Mickey out the door to the Parallel London.

"London, England, Earth. Hold on..." Mickey said He jumps down off the low wall and picks a paper out of a dustbin and looks at the cover.

"First of February this year, not exactly far-flung, is it?" Mickey said as he read the date and Rose jumps down and looks over his shoulder and the Doctor jumps down as well and looks around "So, this is London." He asked

"Yep." Mickey said

"Your city, Mickey." He asked Mickey.

"That's the one." Mickey said still not getting what the Doctor was implying.

"Just as we left it?" The Doctor asked

"Bang on." Mickey said

The Doctor notices zeppelins "And that includes the zeppelins?" He asked and Rose and Mickey look up at him, then follow his gaze and turn around, sure enough, the sky is full of zeppelins.

"What the hell...?" Mickey said in shock.

"So this is a parallel universe where the hindenburg disaster never happened?" Rose guessed

"Okay. So, it's London with a big international zeppelin festival." Mickey said at the same time as Rose.

"Mickey, this is not your world." Rose said

"But if the date's the same..." he then realizes what she said ... "Rose, you said this is a parallel universe and said something about the hindenburg disaster never happening do your saying that this is a parallel universe where the hindenburg never caught on fire near New Jersey. Am I right, aren't I?"

"Must be." The Doctor muttered.

Rose notices an advertisement of her human self's father: Pete Tyler "So, a parallel world where..." she started before being interrupted by Mickey

"Oh, come on. You see it on films. Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like... I dunno - traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected by the parliament in 1997..."(That's how elections go in Britain; you elect the party and the parliament choose the candidate).

"And he's still alive..." Rose said as she looks at the advertisement poster of Pete Tyler as a successful businessman, holding a bottle of Vitex.

"A parallel world and my human self's father is still alive..."

She walks towards the poster and tries to look and walk away from it but couldn't.

The Doctor and Mickey follow her "Don't look at it, Arkytior. Don't even think about it. This is not your human self's world and universe." The Doctor said sternly.

But he's my human self's father... and..." She touches the poster, and the picture of Pete springs to life for a moment, "trust me on this", the poster of Pete says and it winks and gives a thumbs up and Rose steps back "Oh, that's weird." Rose said and the poster of Pete repeated itself "He's a success! He was always planning these daft little schemes, health-food drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it in this universe." Rose said happily

Then the Doctor suddenly grasps Rose by the shoulders and bends slightly to look into her eyes. "Arkytior, if you've ever trusted me since we were children, then listen to me now." The Doctor said urgently and Rose glances back at the poster.

"Stop looking at it!" He exclaimed and Rose reluctantly meets the Doctor's eyes again.

"Your human self's father's dead. He died when your human self was just six months old. That is not your Pete. That is 'A' Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose. His own daughter who is someone else, but not you. But I doubt that cause I don't think We don't exist in this universe and our species was never born in this universe." The Doctor told his wife.

Rose's eyes then starts to wander back to the poster, but she tries to stop herself. "We can't see him. Not ever." The Doctor told his wife and she gives a tiny nod. Mickey touches her shoulder comfortingly. The poster of Pete says 'trust me on this' repeatedly.

A while later Mickey enters the pitch-black TARDIS, closing the door behind him. The Doctor rounds on him. "I told you to keep an eye on her!" The Doctor told and shouts at Mickey angrily.

"She's all right..." Mickey said dismissing what he said.

"My wife in this incarnation of her goes wandering off, parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house! All those temptations calling out." The Doctor said.

"Oh, so it's just Rose then? Nothing out there to tempt me?" Mickey asked the Doctor.

"Well, I don't know, I can't worry about everything... if I could just get this thing to..." The Doctor said and then he kicks the TARDIS console hard in his frustration. He walks slowly over to a chair, scowling "Did that help?" Mickey asked.

"Yes." The Doctor answers.

"Did that hurt?" Mickey asked him.

"Yes. Ow." The Doctor said as he sits down and rubs his foot.

Outside the Tardis Rose strolls along the bank of the Thames and sits down on a bench, clearly deep in thought. The zeppelins are chugging softly in the sky and she looks up at them. One flies right over her head, low in the sky. It is obviously Lumic's, as it has the Cybus logo stamped on the bottom. Her phone bleeps and she takes it out of her pocket and flipped it open and saw a message on the screen of her phone and it says 'welcome - free trial period' and she selects news and footage of the news plays.

"And it's good news for Great Britain as John Lumic returns to the country of his birth. Mr. Lumic, the inventor of high-content metal, has denied allegations of ill health." The newsreader said and the screen changed to an elderly man.

"We're all flesh and blood, but the brain is what makes us human. And my mind is more creative than ever." The elderly man stated and the screen changed back to the newsreader.

"With shares in Cybus Industries doubling in price, Mr. Lumic..." The newsreader continued as

Rose glances up at the zeppelin, realizing who must be inside it. "In other news the Torchwood institute published a study claiming that..." The newsreader continued and then Rose closes off the report.

Back in the Tardis the doctor was still sitting in the chair "We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws its power off the universe, but it's the wrong universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine." The Doctor told Mickey

Mickey sits down down next to him "But... I've seen it in comics. People are hopping from one alternative world to another, it's easy." Mickey asked confusedly

"Not in the real world." The Doctor said "Used to be easy. When the Time Lords and Time Ladies kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind." he added.

"Then how did we get here?" Mickey asked the Doctor

"I dunno. Accident? Should've been impossible, now we're trapped." The doctor answers and then

There was a short, hopeless silence. Then the Doctor notices something "What's that?" The Doctor asked and he spots a tiny green light glowing beneath the console.

"What?" Mickey asked

"That there, is that a reflection?" The Doctor asked and then he and Mickey crouch, staring at it.

"It's a light! Is it? Is that a light? I think that's a light! That's all we need!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly and then they both remove the grilling "We've got power! Mickey, we've got power! Ha!"

Then soon the doctor goes right underneath the console and pulling out some important looking internals of the TARDIS. "It's alive!" The Doctor said happily.

"What is it?" Mickey asked

"It's nothing. It's tiny. One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life. But with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside." The Doctor explained to Mickey.

"Enough to get us home?" Mickey asked

"Not yet." The Doctor answers and he picks up the power cell and sits back on the small set of stairs under the grilling. "I need to charge it up."

He holds it carefully, cupped in both his hands. "We could go outside and latch it up to the national grid!" Mickey suggested.

"Wrong sort of energy. It's gotta come from our universe." The Doctor told him.

"But we don't have anything." Mickey told him confusedly.

"There's me and Rose..." He said and then he blows gently on the power cell and it glows brightly and The Doctor beams happily "I just gave away ten years of my life. Worth every second!" He exclaimed happily as he He giggles dorkishly.

Back with Rose she searches for the name 'Peter Tyler' on the Cybus Network which she now has on her phone.

Back in the TARDIS The Doctor and Mickey are both staring at the power cell with huge grins and the light fades "It's going out. Is that okay?" Mickey asked

"It's on a recharging cycle." The Doctor explained as the power cell glows brighter again, and then back to dim and so on.

"It'll loop round, power back up and be ready to take us home in, oh, twenty-four hours?" He guessed and then he kisses the power cell.

"So, that gives us twenty-four hours on a parallel world?" Mickey asked.

"Surely! As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem." The Doctor said and then he tosses the power cell in the air and catches it again "Let's go and tell her." He said as he stands up and goes to tell Rose what he found.

The Doctor and Mickey come across Rose sitting on the bench.

"There you are, Arkytior!" He called out to Rose "You all right?" He asked his wife "No applause, I fixed it! Found one of the tardis's power cells so we'll have to stay here for twenty-four hours, then we're flying back to reality." He said as he show his wife the power cell.

He sits down on the bench and holds the power cell up to show her and she doesn't even glance at it as she's lost in her own thoughts. "What is it, Arkytior?" he asked Rose as his guns fades and notices her phone

"My phone connected. There's this... Cybus Network, it finds your phone. It gave me Internet access." Rose told him

"Arkytior, whatever it says, this is the wrong world." The Doctor told Rose.

"I know. Doctor. But you were right we don't exist in this universe." Rose told him

"What do you mean?" The Doctor asked his wife.

"There's no Rose Tyler. I was never chameleon arched and adopted by Jackie and Pete Tyler. There's Pete, my human self's father, and Jackie... he still married Jackie... but they never adopted kids." Rose told him

"Give me that phone." The Doctor said as he tries to snatch Rose's phone from her but

Rose pulls it away from his grasp "They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't ever adopted me." She told him and she sounds like she is close to tears. She stands, walking away from bench and then she turns to face her husband "I've gotta see him." Rose told him

"You can't." He told her

"I just wanna see him." Rose said.

"I can't let you, Arkytior!" He told her.

"You just said twenty-four hours!" She reminded him.

"You can't become their daughter, you're not human, Arkytior, that's not the way it works! Mickey, tell her." the Doctor said

Mickey stands up "Twenty-four hours, yeah?" he said.

"Where're you going?" The Doctor asked in bewilderment

"Well, I can do what I want!" Mickey told him

Rose walked backwards in the opposite direction "I've got the address and everything." She told her husband.

The Doctor looks at his wife then looks at Mickey frantically "Stay where you are, both of you! Arkytior, come back here! Mickey, come back here right now!" He ordered them.

"I just wanna see him." Rose told her husband

"Yeah, I've got things to see and all." Mickey told the Doctor.

"Like what?"

"Well, you don't know anything about me, do ya? It's always about Rose, your wife. I'm just a spare part." Mickey told him

"I'm sorry. I've gotta go." Rose said as she walks away and the Doctor turns from Rose to Mickey. They're both walking away from him and he doesn't know which way to turn.

Mickey gestures for the Doctor to chase after Rose "Go on then. No choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us, and it's never gonna be me, is it?" Mickey told him and Rose stops walking backwards, turns and leaves.

"Back here in twenty-four hours!" The Doctor snapped and ordered Mickey before he runs after his wife and Mickey watches the Doctor chasing after his wife.

"Yeah. If I haven't found something better." Mickey muttered to himself before he turns away.


	8. Rise of the cybermen part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Soon the Doctor caught up with Rose and they walked down a street.

"Mickey's mum just couldn't cope. His dad hung around for a while, but then he just sort of wandered off. He was brought up by his gran." Rose told her husband about her human childhood with Mickey and she smiles "She was such a great woman. God, she used to slap him!" She added "And then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It's about five years ago, now. I was still in school and Chameleon arched." Rose told him

"I never knew." The Doctor said

"Well, you never asked." Rose countered

"You never said!" The Doctor countered back at his wife.

"That's Mickey. I s'pose I... we just... take him for granted." She told her husband

"Do you think she's still alive, his gran?" Rose asked her husband.

"I have a feeling that she's still alive in this universe." she added

"Could be. Like I told Mickey, parallel world, gingerbread house. We need to get out of here as fast as we can." He said and then a short alarm sounds and everyone around them suddenly freezes and both The Doctor and Rose look around, confused.

"What're they all doing?" She asked her husband

"They've stopped..." The Doctor said and

Everyone around the Doctor and Rose are wearing earpieces and the earpieces flash and beep quietly and The Doctor stands beside one man and squints at his earpiece.

"It's the earpieces... like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together." He told his wife and then Rose's phone beeps and she takes it out of her pocket and looks at it.

"It's on my phone. It's automatic, look. It's downloading." she told him

"Is this what they're all getting?" She asked her husband

The Doctor peers over her shoulder and puts his glasses on and Rose scrolls through the 'daily downloads'.

"News... international news... sport... weather..." Rose read

"They get it direct. Downloaded right into their heads." The Doctor realized

"TV schedules, lottery numbers..." Rose continued

"Everyone shares the same information." The Doctor noted and he takes the phone from Rose

"Daily download published by Cybus Industries" he reads and then the download scrolls to 'Joke' and Everyone around them laughs loudly, and then unpause and walk on to their own business.

The Doctor and Rose stare, completely nonplussed as the crowd carry on as though nothing had happened.

"Humans they're obsessed. They'd do anything for the latest upgrade." The Doctor stated

He then presses a few buttons on his wife's phone. "Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries owns just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mr. Pete Tyler's very well connected." He said as he showed his wife

Rose does not reply, but hangs off his arm smiling innocently and has a puppy-dog-eyes look at her husband until he gave up

He sighed "Oh, okay. I give up." He said before he tosses her phone back to her "Let's go and see him." He added.

* * *

They went near Pete Tyler's Mansion and crouched in bushes and watched as an expensive car pulls up outside Pete's and parallel Jackie's mansion. "They've got visitors." The Doctor said.

"February the first, mum's birthday even though she's not even though my birth mother in our universe. Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party." Rose said

"Well, given Pete Tyler's guest list, I wouldn't mind a look. And there is one guaranteed way of getting inside." He said and he waves his psychic paper around.

"Psychic paper!" Rose said excitedly.

"Who do you wanna be Arkytior?" He asked Rose

"I would really want Psychic Paper, Theta." Rose said

Then the Doctor and Rose went to front of the mansion and the Doctor showed the receptionist the psychic paper "John and Rose Smith, waiter and waitress." The Doctor told the receptionist and then the receptionist went to get them uniforms and led them to the changing rooms.

After the Doctor changed out his pinstriped suit into a black suit with a black bow tie and Rose changed out of her jacket to a uniform of a 21st century waitress and then went to the kitchen.

The Doctor and Rose entered the drawing room of the mansion carrying trays with food on the trays and a woman takes some food from Rose's tray and walks off. "We could've been anyone." Rose told her husband quietly.

"Got us in, didn't it, Arkytior?" He told his wife.

"You're in charge of the psychic paper, Theta. We could've been guests. Celebrities. Sir Doctor, Dame Rose." She told him remembering the time when she met the grandmother of Europe (Queen Victoria) and fought a Lupine wavelength haemovarioform (Werewolf) back when she was a chameleon arched human. "We end up serving. I had enough of this when I was still chameleon arched any growing up at the Powell estate." Rose added and they both smile politely as people take champagne and cocktail sticks from their trays.

"Honey, if you wanna know what's going on, work in the kitchens." the Doctor suggested his wife to do and then they retreat slightly to the side of the room so they can watch the proceedings, groups of important people chatting and laughing, photographs being taken. "According to Lucy, that man over there..." He started nodding towards an elderly man of African descent

"Who's Lucy, Theta?" Rose asked

He pointed to a woman "She's carrying the salmon pinwheels." He said as he nods over to a young waitress at the other side of the room.

"Oh, that's Lucy, is it?" Rose asked as she looks at the waitress.

"Yeah! Lucy says, that is the President of Great Britain." the Doctor said nodding back at the elderly man of African descent.

"What, there's a President, not a Prime Minister?" Rose said in shock "Not even having both a prime Minister and a President like France and Russia."

"Seems so." The Doctor guessed.

"Or maybe Lucy's just a bit thick." Rose said and then the two time Lords move on their way with the trays.

Rose follows and hears the sound of Pete's voice at the bottom of the large staircase and the Doctor follows and saw Pete is standing halfway up the staircase.

"Um, I'd just like to say, er, thank you to you all, for coming on this er, this very special occasion." Pete thanked everyone and Rose gazes up at him.

"My wife's... thirty-ninth." Pete continued and the crowd giggles, laugh and chuckles.

"Trust me on this..." Pete quoted himself with his thumbs up and the crowd laugh appreciatively.

"So, without any further ado, here she is. The birthday girl... my lovely wife... Jackie Tyler." Pete finishes.

Rose strains for a look and the Doctor glances at his wife. Jackie descends the staircase, smiling at the crowd who applaud and cheer and snap photos. Rose stares at Jackie and Jackie stands next to Pete.

"Now, I'm not giving a speech, that's what my parties are famous for, no work, no politics, just a few good mates and plenty of black-market whisky." Jackie told them and that made the crowd laugh again.

Jackie spots the President of Britain "Pardon me, Mr. President!" She said and He smiles as she said that "So, yeah! Get on with it, enjoy, enjoy." She finished and More people in the crowd cheered.

Pete takes Jackie's hand and they descend the rest of the stairs to mingle with the crowd.

"We can't stay, Arkytior. Even if there was some way of telling them." The Doctor quietly told his wife.

"Course we can't, Theta. I've still got Jackie in our universe, my adoptive human mum from when I was chameleon arched. I couldn't just leave her, could I. It's just... they've got each other. Our Jackie's got no one." Rose reaffirmed her husband.

"Rose!" Jackie called as a dog ran into the room and the dog barks end helps as the dog came into the room

"There's my little girl!" Parallel Jackie said as the dog potters over to Jackie, who picks her up. "Come to mummy, come to mummy! Yes, good girl! Good girl, aren't you." Parallel Jackie told the dog and the expression on Rose's face is horrified and embarrassment and the Doctor takes one look at her and bursts out laughing, but sobers at the look she gives him.

"Sorry." He apologized his wife sheepishly.

The Doctor detaches himself from the crowds after telling Rose he needs to see something and walks down a corridor.

The Doctor almost walks past a dark, empty room with the door slightly ajar, but backtracks as he notices a laptop open on the desk inside. He looks warily behind him to check that the coast is clear, then sneaks quietly into the room, shutting the door behind him. He puts on his glasses and looks at the screen, and smiles.

Meanwhile in the hallway Rose watches from a distance as Jackie chats to the President, laughing raucously and Pete appears next to the Time Lady, also watching Jackie.

"I remember her twenty-first. Pint of cider in the George." Pete told the Time Lady.

"Sorry, champagne?" Rose offered champagne to Pete.

"Oh, might as well. I'm paying for it!" Pete said as he accepted the champagne and they laugh and Pete sips the champagne.

"It's a big night for you..." Rose told him.

"Well, for her... still, she's happy." Pete said

"Yeah, she should be. It's a great party." Rose agreed.

"Do you think?" Pete asked the Time Lady and Rose gives him the thumbs up and grins.

"You can trust me...!" She tries to quote him but forgot the last part.

"You can trust me on this." Pete corrects Rose

"That's it, sorry, yeah!" She said and they laugh.

"So, um, how long have you two been married?" Rose asked Pete

"Twenty years." He answered.

"And no kids, or...?" Rose asked, wondering if this version of Pete and Jackie ever planned for having children.

"We kept putting it off. She said she didn't wanna spoil her figure. She also didn't feel like adopting a child." Pete told the Time Lady.

"It's not too late. She's only forty." Rose said to Pete.

"Thirty-nine." He corrects her "Oh, right, thirty-nine!" Rose said.

'So Mum was born a year earlier in this universe' Rose thought to herself and both she and Pete chuckled

"It's still too late... I moved out last month. We're gonna keep it quiet, you know, it's bad for business." He told her without thinking and Rose's smile fades and she nods.

There was a brief moment of silence "Why am I telling you all this? We haven't met before, have we?" Pete asked Rose as he was why he told her about him moving out and Rose stares at him.

"I dunno, you just seem sort of..." Pete said as he stares at her

"What?" Rose asked him and Pete considers what to say but doesn't know how to say it and he can't put his finger on it "I dunno, just sort of... right." He decides to say to her.

There was another moment of silence and Pete seems to get uncomfortable with the situation and moves away to talk to someone else. "Stevey, how's things? How's it going at Torchwood?" He asked someone and Rose is left alone.

* * *

Back with The Doctor he found a presentation Cybermen on the laptop. "The most precious thing on this Earth is the human brain..." A voice of a man narrates on the laptop

Jackie is alone just outside on the porch and Rose spots her through the window and follows her outside.

Jackie settles herself down on a bench.

"Mrs. Tyler, is there anything I can get you?" Rose asked Jackie.

"The last twenty years back." Jackie joked and laughs tiredly and Rose smiles with uncertainly.

"I can manage a glass of champagne... or a nice cup of tea?" Rose offered her.

"Oh, that'd do me!" Jackie said and they laugh and Rose sits down next to Jackie, still holding the tray of champagne.

"My mum loves that. End of a long night, she never goes straight to bed, she always stays up just to have that last cup of tea." Rose told her.

"Oh, I'm the same!" Jackie exclaimed

Rose looks at her "Two sugars..." Rose added.

"And me! Pete always says, you know..." Jackie starts but stops in mid-sentence, and shakes her head "ah, never mind him." She said

"I was talking to him earlier. He's a nice man. You know, big of a Jack the Lad, I s'pose, even if he has got money, but... he's a good bloke. Better than most." Rose told her she

looks at Jackie for a few moments.

"He's worth a second chance." She told Jackie quietly and Jackie turns sharply.

"Are you commenting on my marriage?" Jackie asked the Time Lady coldly.

"No, I was just..." Rose said, trying to apologise

"Who the hell do you think you are? You're staff! You're nothing but staff, you're just the serving girl, for God's sake." Jackie said and Rose looks away, hurt.

"And you are certainly not getting paid. Don't you dare talk to me." Jackie said harshly to Rose.

Jackie stands and goes back inside, leaving Rose alone on the bench, upset and Suddenly, a floodlight of sorts snaps on making Rose squint. Shadowy figures march up the front lawn, They come closer with an ominous sound of loud metal banging.

The Doctor is still inside watching the presentation on the laptop.

"This is the ultimate upgrade. Our greatest step into cyberspace." The narrator stated and

The Doctor looks horrified as he realizes what this means: The return of the Cybermen but instead of Mondas they're from a parallel version of Earth.

"Cybus." He mumbled quietly to himself as

he dashes from the room without hesitation.

Rose stands and watches the figures marching closer. After a few moments, she turns on her heel and runs back inside.

The Doctor rushes his way through the crowds of people in the drawing room and spots Rose; they both go to the window and look outside at the figures.

"It's happening again, Arkytior." The Doctor muttered.

"What do you mean, Theta? What's happening again?" Rose asked her husband.

"I've seen them before. They're the last creatures I fought before I regenerated for the first time in 1986 at the Earth's south Pole." The Doctor told Rose and The figures got closer to the mansion.

"What are they?" Rose asked her husband.

"Cybermen." The Doctor told his wife.

Several of the Cybermen smash their steel fists through the windows in order to gain entry to the house, which caused several people from the crowd to scream and cower as the Cybermen step through the full length windows. Soon, they have everyone in the room circled with no way out and the President's communication Bluetooth earbud device bleeps as a call came through his earbuds and he answers it "Mr. Lumic." The President said distastefully.

"Mr. President. I suppose a remark about crashing the party would be appropriate at this point." Lumic suggested before he laughs evilly.

"I forbade this." the President told Lumic.

"These are my children, sir." Lumic told the President "Would you deny my family?" He asked the President

"What are they, Theta? Cyborgs?" Rose asked her husband, under her breath.

"Yes, Arkytior. They were humans until they had all their humanity taken away. It's a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body. With a heart of steel. All emotions removed." The Doctor answered his wife

"Why no emotions?" Rose asked, wondering why Cybermen didn't have emotions.

"Because it hurts." He told his wife.

"Who were these people?" The President asked Lumic.

"Doesn't matter." Lumic stated

"I demand to know, Lumic, these people, who were they?" The President demanded with his voice rising in anger.

"They were homeless, wretched and useless until I saved them. And elevated them. And gave them life-eternal. And now, I leave you in their capable hands. Goodnight, sir. Goodnight, Mr President." Lumic said before he hangs up.

One of the Cybermen squares itself in front of the crowd "We have been upgraded." The Cyberman stated.

"Into what?" The Doctor asked, pretending not knowing what they meant even though he already knew what he mean.

"The next level of mankind. We are Human Point Two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us." The Cyberman told everyone in the crowd.

The President approaches the cyberman "I'm sorry." He told the cyberman with compassion "I'm so sorry for what's been done to you."

The President Turns, and walks around "But listen to me, this experiment ends. Tonight." He said to everyone.

"Upgrading is compulsory." The Cyberman told him.

"And if I refuse?" The President asked the cyberman.

"Don't." The Doctor quickly warned the President and Rose glances at her husband.

"What if I refuse?" The President asked the cyberman again.

"I'm telling you, don't." The Doctor said warning the President again.

"What happens if I refuse?" The President asked the Cyberman again as he ignores the Doctor's warning.

"Then you are not compatible." The Cyberman told the President

"What happens then?" The President challenged the Cybermen.

"You will be deleted." The Cyberman told him before grasping the President, whose eyes widen in shock, by the neck and is engulfed by electric-blue light as he is assassinated and everyone in the crowd scream and starts to run in fear.

"Jackie?!" Pete shouts the name of his wife to make sure of where she was as people in the room desperately run around, looking for a way out whilst some unfortunate individuals are attacked by the Cybermen, the room is chaos, the Doctor grabs Rose's hand and pulls her outside through one of the broken windows.

They run up a slope, only to be greeted by another row of Cybermen and quickly change direction and run around the side of the house and Rose saw Pete leap out of a window Rose spots him and Rose calls him over to them. "Quick! Quick!" Rose calls him over to them and Pete runs after them.

A few moments later The Doctor, Rose and Pete reach the front of the house.

"Pete, there's no way out!" The Doctor told Pete as he looked around.

"The side gates!" Pete exclaimed and

They run in the direction he indicates "Who are you? How do you know so much?" He asked the Doctor as they ran towards the side gates.

"You wouldn't believe it in a million years..." The Doctor told him.

The n they skid to a halt as they are met by another row of Cybermen and are forced to change direction, and two figures run towards the house, holding rifles.

"Who's that?!" Rose asked

"Get behind me!" A man that looks like and sounds Mickey ordered.

The Doctor, Rose and Pete stand and crouch behind the man that looks like Mickey and a blonde haired man as they fire their guns at the onslaught of Cybermen and The Cybermen stop marching. Rose fusses with the cost of man that looks like Mickey "Oh my God, look at you..." Rose said relieved as she pulls him into a tight hug and the man that looks like Mickey was confused.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Rose continued and he pulls away from her "Yeah, no offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?" He asked her, not knowing who she is.

Then suddenly Mickey sprints down the lawn towards them "Rose!" Mickey called and He stops as he reaches them "That's not me. That's like... the other one." He added andbRose stares at him, and then at the Man that looks like Mickey.

"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickey's!" The Doctor exclaimed.

"It's Ricky." The parallel version of Mickey told them.

"But there's more of them..." Mickey said, referring to the cybermen.

They all look around them in fear as they are surrounded by Cybermen "We're surrounded..." Rose cried and Ricky raises his gun "Put the guns down. Bullets won't stop them." The Doctor told them but The man with blonde hair ignores this and fires a rally and The Doctor pushes his gun aside angrily. "No! Stop shooting, now!"

The Doctor straightens and addresses the surrounding Cybermen. "We surrender!" The Doctor yelled as he put his hands up...

Everyone else put their hands up "there's no need to damage us, we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed." The Doctor added.

"You and the female are rogue elements." One of the cybermen told him.

"But we surrender." The Doctor said pretending to be confused.

"You and the female are incompatible." One of the cybermen stated.

"But this is a surrender!" The Doctor cried.

"You and the female will be deleted." One of the cybermen told him.

"But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!" The Doctor said shouting frantically at the cybermen

"You and the female are both inferior. Man will be reborn as Cybermen but you and the female will both perish under maximum deletion." One of the cybermen told him then the Cyberman raises it's arm and reaches towards the Doctor and Rose and everyone looks terrified.

"Delete. Delete. Delete!" Every one of the Cybermen in front of them chanted

**To be continued...**


	9. Age of Steel part 1

**Disclaimer I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

The Doctor points the power cell at the Cybermen, which expels a shoot of golden light which bounds off one of them and onto the others, they are all disintegrated.

"What the hell was that?" Ricky asked, confused as what that light he just saw was.

"We'll have that instead, run!" The Doctor suggested And they run and a blue van behind them honked its horn "Everybody in!" A female voice that was the driver ordered and both the Blonde haired man and Ricky gets in the front of the van.

Pete tries to run back to the house but the Doctor grabs him and tries to restrain him as Pete neared the pillars of the mansion "I've gotta go back, my wife's in there." Pete pleaded wanting to save his wife.

"Anyone inside that house is dead. If you wanna help, then don't let her die for nothing. You've gotta come with us right now." The Doctor told him and Pete understands what the Doctor was suggesting, and hurries back to the van "Come on, get a move on!" The Driver said as The Doctor and Rose go in the direction of the van and got in the back and The van drove off as The Cybermen that were not confronting the Doctor and the rest of the group when the Doctor disintegrated the others march ominously forwards.

* * *

As the van is driving along at a steady speed now, relatively calm. The man with Blonde hair introduced himself as Jake and the driver introduced herself as .

Ricky, who is sitting in the front, glares through the grilling at the power cell, which the Doctor is still holding in his hand.

"What was that thing?" Rickey asked the Doctor, wanting to know what that light was the powercell that The Doctor was holding that disintegrated the cybermen

"Little bit of technology from me and my wife's home." The Doctor answered and gestured to Rose.

"It's stopped glowing. Has it run out?" Mickey asked to see if the powercell was dead.

"It's on a revitalising loop. It'll charge back up in about four hours." The Doctor said as he puts the Powercell in his pocket.

" Right. So, we don't have a weapon anymore." Rickey stated.

"Yeah, we've got weapons. Might not be one of those metal things, but they're good enough for men like him." Jake said, looking at Pete.

"Leave him alone! What's he done wrong?" Rose asked, raising her voice.

"Oh, you know, just laid a trap that's wiped out the Government. And left Lumic in charge." Jake explained

"If I was part of all that, do you think I'd leave my wife inside?" Pete asked, trying to explain that he's on their side.

"Maybe your plan went wrong. Still gives us the right to execute you, though." Rickey suggested

"Talk about executions, you'll make me and my wife your enemies. And take some really good advice, you don't wanna do that." The Doctor said, not wanting to make Jake and Ricky his and Rose's enemy.

"All the same... we have evidence that says Pete Tyler's been working for Lumic since 20.5." Ricky said and Rose stares at Pete, taken aback.

"Is that true?"

Pete looks uncomfortable "Tell 'em, Mrs M." Rickey .

"We've got a government mole who feeds us information. Lumic's private files, his South American operations... the lot. Secret broadcasts twice a week." Mrs. Moore explained

"Broadcast from Gemini?" Pete asked

"And how do you know that?" Rickey asked Pete

"I'm Gemini. That's me." Pete explained

"Yeah, well you would say that." Rickey said as he didn't believe Pete.

"Encrypted wavelength six-five-seven using binary nine." Pete started and Ricky and Jake glanced at one another.

" That's the only reason I was working for Lumic. To get information." Pete added

"I thought I was broadcasting to the Security Services, and what do I get? Scooby Doo and his gang. They've even got the van!" Pete exclaimed sarcastically

"No, no, no! But the Preachers know what they're doing. Ricky said he's London's Most Wanted!" Mickey said as he was confused

"Yeah, that's not exactly..." Ricky started

"Not exactly what?" Mickey asked wanting to know what the parallel version of him was going to say.

"I'm London's Most Wanted for... parking tickets." Ricky explained and The Doctor smiles and Rose raises her eyebrows.

"Great." Pete said sarcastically

"They were deliberate! I was fighting the system! Park anywhere, that's me." Ricky said defending himself.

"Good policy. I do much the same. I'm the Doctor, by the way, if anyone's interested..." The Doctor said introducing himself.

"And I'm Arkytior but you can call me Rose cause that's what my name translates to in english. Hello!" Rose said introducing herself in both her gallifreyan nickname and her title.

"Even better. That's the name of my dog. Still, at least I've got the catering staff on my side." Pete said still thinking that the Doctor and Rose were part of his staff and Rose looks at him "I knew you weren't a traitor." She told him quietly

"Why's that, then?" Pete asked her and Rose glances at her husband, who is watching her.

"I just did." Rose said

"They took my wife." Pete said not wanting his wife to die.

"She might still be alive." Rose told Pete, compassionately.

"That's even worse. 'Cos that's what Lumic does. He takes the living... and he turns them into those machines." Pete said

"Cybermen." the Doctor explained then everybody except Rose looked at him "They're called Cybermen. And I'd take those ear-pods off, if I were you."he advised and Pete obliges and gives them to the Doctor and he gave one of the to Rose.

"You never know... Lumic could be listening." The Doctor said before he disables the earpiece for the right ear with his sonic screwdriver and Rose disables the left ear-piece with her sonic screwdriver.

"But he's overreached himself. He's still just a businessman. He's assassinated the President. All we need to do is get to the City and inform the authorities. Because I promise you, this ends tonight." The Doctor said coldly.

* * *

Later after the van stopped and they got out and walked along the street and saw everyone around them is marching towards the same destination emotionlessly and they watch them, confused "What the hell...?" The man with Blonde hair cried

"What's going on?" Rose asked, confused.

"It's the ear-pods. Lumic's taking control." The Doctor guessed as he saw the ear pods blinking

"Can't we just take them off?" Mickey asked

He goes up to one man to take his ear-pods out, but Rose stops him.

"Don't! Cause a brainstorm." Rose told him

"Human Race, for such an intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life." The Doctor said.

"Hey." Jake said and they saw both he and Ricky are peering around the corner, crouching. "Come and see." Jake added.

The Doctor, Rose, Mickey and Pete join them in looking around the corner. A row of Cybermen march alongside the people under the control of the ear-pods, still heading in the same direction.

"Where are they all going?" Rose asked

"I don't know. Lumic must have a base of operation, Arkytior." The Doctor said

"Battersea. That's where he was building his prototypes." Pete told them where Lumic's base of operations was.

"Why's he doing it?" Rose asked Pete.

"He's dying. This all started out as a way of life by keeping the brain alive. At any cost." Pete explained.

Rose looked at her husband to the Doctor "The thing is, I've seen Cybermen before, haven't I? That head, those handle shapes in Van Statten's museum." Rose asked the Doctor as she looked at him

"You saw the head of a cyberman I fought when I was in my fifth sixth and seventh incarnation, Arkytior." The Doctor confirmed that she saw a head of a cyberman when she first met a Dalek.

"What the hell are you two on about?" Pete asked the Doctor and Rose.

"Never mind that. Come on, we need to get out of the City." Rickey said as the Cybermen are fast-approaching down the street.

"Okay, split up, Mrs. Moore, you look after that bloke. Jake, distract them, go right, I'll go left, we'll meet back at Bridge Street. Move." Rickey added and he runs off in one direction, Jake in the other, Mickey turns to Rose "I'm going with him." He follows Ricky.

"Come on, let's go." Mrs. Moore said and then they ran as the Cybermen march towards them.

"Back!" She exclaimed as they run down a side alley, with some Cybermen in pursuit.

* * *

Meanwhile with Ricky and Mickey, they come to a fork in the road and halt, out of breath "Which way? I don't know where we are." Mickey asked the parallel version of himself.

"Did they see us?" Rickey asked Mickey.

"Do they know where we are?" Mickey asked.

"I think they saw us. I bet they can see in the dark..." Rickey started.

"I bet they got satellites..." Mickey interrupted his parallel self.

"I bet they saw us in the dark..." Rickey repeated himself.

"They know where we are." Mickey and Ricky said in unison and they look at each other.

"I don't get it. What is it with you? You are exactly like me." Ricky noted as he was confused on how Mickey knew what he was going to say but both of them said it at the same time.

"I dunno. I reckon you're braver." Mickey told him.

"Oh yeah. Ten times. Still, your friends aren't bad. I'll give you that." Rickey complimented Mickey.

"Oh, that's the Doctor and his wife: Rose. I just tag along behind." Mickey told him.

"Well, then you're not that bad." Ricky complimented Mickey.

"D'you think?" Mickey asked his parallel self.

"Yeah, I suppose." Ricky said and then they hear the sound of marching feet behind them and spin around and saw That Cybermen are approaching.

"Cybermen." Mickey said.

"Split up!" Both Mickey and Ricky said to each other at the same time before dashing off in opposite directions.

* * *

A different squad of Cybermen march down a street whilst the Doctor, Rose, Pete and Mrs. Moore crouch hidden behind a pile of rubbish and dustbins. Rose clutches onto Pete's hand and the Cybermen stop as if they want to investigate the rubbish further, but the Doctor points his sonic screwdriver in their direction and It bleeps and they go on their way and Rose stands and lets go of Pete's hand and both he and the Time Lady glance at one other, he's clearly slightly bewildered by the way she's behaving towards him.

They all stand warily and watch the Cybermen march off into the distance "Go." The Doctor whispers to everyone as they creep out from behind the dustbins and run in the opposite direction.

* * *

Back with Ricky, he is running as fast as he can, but the Cybermen are hot on his tail. He is forced to change direction when he is met by another group of them.

Then he runs down a side alley and finds his way blocked by a metal fence, which he rattles on, but the gate is locked and Mickey runs to the gate on the other side "Come on!" Mickey exclaimed and Ricky is forced to start climbing the fence. "Come on! Come on!" Mickey screamed at his parallel self with urgency growing inside him. But then all of a sudden one of the Cybermen is close enough to reach out and grab hold of Ricky's foot, and he is electrocuted Rickey screams as he felt the electricity

"No!" Mickey screamed and Ricky falls backwards off the fence and lands in a heap on the ground and watched as his parallel self dies and there was a silence in Mickey, dismayed, looks from the body to the Cybermen, who are just standing there on the other side of the fence, watching him and he sniffs, stumbles backwards, and runs away to retreat.

* * *

Jake runs back to where the Doctor, Rose and Pete are waiting. "I ran past the river. You should've seen it, the whole City's on the watch. Hundreds of Cybermen all down the Thames." Jake told them as Mickey runs down the street towards them, alone. Jake turns and his face lights up "Here he is!" Jake said thinking it was Ricky and Mickey does not reply as he comes to a halt, Jake furrows his brow.

Which one are you?" Jake asked Mickey and the fact that something is wrong is written all over Mickey's face. "I'm sorry. The Cybermen. He couldn't..." Mickey started "Are you Ricky? Are You Ricky?" Jake asked Mickey wanting to know if Mickey was Rickey.

"Mickey, that's you, isn't it?" Rose asked Mickey

"Yeah." Mickey confirmed and Rose runs to him and hugs him and Jake was silent.

"He tried. He was running..." Mickey started to tell Jake but Jake turns away from him.

"There was too many of them." Mickey said trying to tell Jake what happened to Rickey

"Shut it." Jake snapped at Mickey as his face contorts with pain and grief.

"There was nothing I could do." Mickey added

"I said just shut it. Don't even talk about him. You're nothing, you are." Jake snapped at Mickey again as he spinned around at him and Mickey's eyes are red and shining with tears as are Jake's eyes as well.

"Nothing." Jake added to himself.

"We can mourn him when London is safe. But now, we move on." The Doctor told them calmly and the group nod miserably.

They walk up a slope which overlooks the river and saw Battersea on the opposite side of the bank of the river "The whole of London's been sealed off, and the entire population's been taken inside that place. To be converted." The Doctor said as he looked at Lumic's base

"We've gotta get in there and shut it down." Rose told them and knew she that her husband didn't have a plan... yet.

"How do we do that?" Mickey asked not knowing what the plan was.

"Oh, I'll think of something." The Doctor told them as he didn't have a plan yet.

"You're just making this up as you go along!" Mickey said in indignantly, and annoyance.

"Yep. But I do it brilliantly." The Doctor said popping the 'p'. and Rose smirks at her husband and Mickey has to agree with him.

* * *

A while later Mrs. Moore had a laptop out, and has a 3D model on the screen. "That's a schematic of the old factory. Look, cooling tunnels... underneath the plant... big enough to walk through." She told them and Everyone is crowded around the laptop on a bench, except Jake, who stands some distance away, not really listening.

"We go under there and up into the control centre?" The Doctor said not knowing how to do it.

"Hmm." she hummed.

"There's another way in." Pete told them and everyone looks at him "Through the front door. If they've taken Jackie for upgrading, that's how she'll get in..."

Jake finally goes over to them "We can't just go strolling up." He told them.

"Or, we could... with these..." Mrs. Moore suggested as she takes some ear-pods from her bag and The Doctor grabs one. "Fake ear-pods. Dead. No signal. But put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd." she told them

"Then that's my job." Pete told them.

"You'd have to show no emotion. None at all. Any sign of emotion would give you away." The Doctor told Pete.

"How many of those have you got?" Rose asked Mrs. Moore.

"Just two sets." Mrs. Moore said as she answers Rose's question.

"Okay. If that's the best way of finding Jackie... I'm coming with you." Rose told Pete and She gets up and stands next to him.

"Why does she matter to you?" He asked the Time Lady.

"We haven't got time. Doctor, I'm going with him, and that's that." Rose told her husband

"No stopping you, is there,Arkytior?" The Doctor asked his wife as he stares at her.

"Nope." She confirmed and then he gave her the ear pods

"Tell you what... we can take the ear-pods at the same time. Give people their minds back. So they don't walk into that place like sheep." He suggested what they could also do.

"Jakey-boy?" The Doctor called to Jake and he leads Jake further up the hill for a better look at Battersea and the zeppelin stationed above it.

"Lumic's transmitting the control signal, and it must be from over there..." The Doctor said and he points his sonic screwdriver at Battersea and the Zeppelin bleeps.

"There it is... on the zeppelin, see? Great big transmitter. Good thing Lumic likes showing off. Reckon you could take it out?" He asked Jake.

"Consider it done." Jake answers smiling and pleased and the Doctor pats him on the shoulder and goes back to the others.

"Mrs Moore... would you care to accompany me into the cooling tunnels?" The Doctor offered.

"How could I refuse an offer of cooling tunnels?" Mrs. Moore said, accepting the Time Lord's offer.

"We attack on three sides, above, between - below. We get to the control centre, we stop the conversion machines." The Doctor said as he takes his glasses off.

"What about me?" Mickey asks and he's standing slightly apart from the group, forgotten then Everyone looks over at him like they've only just remembered he's there.

"Mickey! You can... ahm..." The Doctor started but didn't know what Mickey could do.

"What, stay out of trouble? Be the tin dog?" Mickey asked "No, those days are over. I'm going with Jake." he told them

"I don't need you, idiot." Jake told him

"I'm not an idiot! You got that?!"!Mickey snapped at Jake "I'm offering to help." He told Jake calmly.

"Whatever." Jake said he walks off and Mickey follows him, The Doctor watches closely.

"Mickey?" The Doctor called and Mickey turns back to look at the Time Lord.

"Good luck." He said to Mickey.

"Yeah. You too. Rose, I'll see you later." Mickey told them.

"Yeah, you better." Rose agreed.

"If we survive this, I'll see you back at the TARDIS." The Doctor told Mickey and he smiles at Mickey, eyes intense and Mickey nods back at him.

"That's a promise." Mickey told them and

He walks away again with a smile on his face, confidence restored. He glances over his shoulder in time to see the Doctor and Rose kiss passionately and we're in a tight hug and She grins up at him.

"Good luck, Arkytior." The Doctor said to his wife.

Rose nods "I will and you too, Theta." She told her husband and whispered the name Theta to him so no one else but the two of them hears it and Mickey turns away to follow any go with Jake.


	10. Age of Steel part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

The trap door to the cooling tunnels opens and Mrs. Moore descends a ladder, followed by the Doctor.

"It's freezing here." Mrs. Moore complained.

"Any sign of a light switch?" The Doctor asked

"Can't see a thing. But I've got these..." Mrs. Moore started and then she rummages through her bag and hands the Doctor a light that can be tied around his head.

"A device for every occasion..." Mrs. Moore said.

"Ooh!" The Doctor said as she gave the light to him.

"Put it on." she said and then she finds one for herself and They put them on.

"Haven't got a hotdog in there, have you? I'm starving." The Doctor said and Mrs. Moore laughs.

"Of all the things to wish for! That's mechanically recovered meat!" She told him

"I know. It's the Cyberman of food, but it's tasty." The Doctor said and She hands him a torch "A proper torch as well." She told him.

"Let's see where we are." He said as he switches the torch on and takes a few steps forward and the first thing the light falls on is a Cyberman. There are hundreds of them lining the cooling tunnels, but they seem lifeless.

"Already converted, just paralyzed. Come on!" He said and then he walks forward, ready to start the journey down the cooling tunnels. After a moments hesitation, Mrs. Moore follows. The Doctor pauses and knocks one on the nose or where the nose should be which elicits no response.

"Let's go slowly. Keep an eye out for trip systems." He said and they edge slowly and warily down the tunnel, past lifeless Cyberman after lifeless Cyberman.

* * *

At Battersea power station a huge truck drives away from the power station and a row of Cybermen march in the opposite direction meanwhile the whole place is very busy.

"Chamber six now open for human upgrading." A voice of a Cyberman said on a loudspeaker as both

Rose and Pete dart along the side of the building, trying to remain unseen.

"Chamber seven now open for human upgrading" the voice of the cyberman added on the loudspeaker as a row of brain-dead people march alongside the Cybermen and both Pete and Rose are crouched out of sight.

"Chamber eight now open for human upgrading." The voice of the cyberman added on the loudspeaker.

"Just put them on. Don't show any emotion. No signs, nothing. Okay?" Pete said referring to the ear-pods that gave them.

"Don't worry. We can do it." Rose promised

"Chamber seven now open for human upgrading." The voice of the Cyberman added on the loudspeaker and both Pete and Rose put their fake ear-pods in place.

"We could die in here. Why are you doing this?" Pete asked the Time Lady.

"Let's just say I'm doing it for my mum and dad. Right, let's go." Rose replied and they come out of their hiding place.

"Chamber eight now open for human upgrading." The voice of a cyberman said on the loudspeaker.

Before they join the line of people filing into the building for upgrading Pete gives Rose's hand a squeeze and found her hand to be freezing cold but he ignores it so he can ask her another time.

"Chamber nine now open for human upgrading. chamber ten now open for human upgrading. Chamber eleven now open for human upgrading." the voice of the Cyberman said on the loudspeaker and both Rose and Pete joined the other humans, in line, not a flicker of emotion on their faces.

* * *

Jake climbed a ladder to the roof of the building: Battersea Power station, over which the zeppelin is parked and he smiles, Mickey follows him and

Jake stealthily creeps behind a wall to avoid being noticed by there were two guards standing beneath the zeppelin, and beckons to Mickey who follows.

"Two guards. We can take them." Jake told Mickey

"Don't kill them." Mickey ordered Jake.

"Who put you in charge?" Jake asked Mickey, confusedly.

"If you kill them, what's the difference between you and a Cyberman?" Mickey asked him and

Jake pauses and realizes what he meant.

"Well, I suppose we could use these." Jake said and he hands Mickey a small corked bottle.

"Smelling salts?" Mickey asked as he looked at the bottle

"Bit stronger than that. One of Mrs. Moore's little tricks. Should knock them out." Jake told him "Three, two, one..." Jake whispered to Mickey and then they ran out from behind the wall and creep up behind the guards. They grab them from behind and shove the 'smelling salts' under their noses and the guards go unconscious in seconds.

"There's gotta be more guards on board." Mickey said to Jake.

"Then let's go get them." Jake responded before they go up the ladder to the zeppelin.

* * *

Back in the cooling tunnels the Doctor and Mrs. Moore are still making their way stealthily along the tunnel.

"How did you get into this, then? Rattling along with the Preachers?" He asked her.

"Oh, I used to be ordinary. Worked at Cybus Industries. '95. 'Til one day, I find something I'm not supposed to. A file on the mainframe. All I did was read it. Then suddenly, I've got men with guns knocking in the middle of the night. Life on the run. Then I found the Preachers. They needed a techy, so I... I just sat down and taught myself everything." She explained how she joined the Preachers.

"What about Mr. Moore?" The Doctor asked her if she had a husband.

"Well, he's not called Moore. I got that from a book, Mrs. Moore. It's safer not to use real names. But he thinks I'm dead. It was the only way to keep him safe. Him and the kids." She told him.

"What about you and your wife, Rose? Have you and her got any family, or...?" She asked him

"Oh, me at wife's parents are dead, they died in a war. But who needs family? We've got the whole world on me and my wife's shoulders." He told her.

"Go on then, what's your real name?" He asked her what her real name was.

"Angela Price." She answers and the Doctor nods and smiles.

"Don't tell a soul." She told him not to tell anyone else her real name.

"Not a word." He said as he won't tell anyone.

Behind them, a red button behind a Cyberman lights up and starts bleeping quietly the Cyberman slowly turns its head.

* * *

At Lumic's headquarters an alarm goes off on a computer and a Cyberman strides over to it.

"Movement in Deepcold Six." The cyberman informed another cyberman in the room

"Awaken the army." The other cyberman told the cyberman.

* * *

Back in the cooling tunnels one of the sleepless

Cybermen's hand twitches slightly and Mrs. Moore noticed it "Doctor? Did that one just move?" said as she was scared.

"It's just the torchlight. Keep going, come on." He reassured her but then another one, just in front of them, and definitely turns "They're waking up... Run!" He said and they run down the cooling tunnel as fast as they can.

As they go, the Cybermen spring to life, one after another. They begin to march forwards just as they reach the ladder at the end of the tunnel. "Get up! Quick! They're coming!" Mrs. Moore said in a panicked voice as the Doctor attempts to open the seal with his sonic screwdriver. "Open it! Open it!" She screamed and the Doctor succeeds and tosses the door aside and he Doctor climbs up it first and Mrs. Moore followed suit as scramble to get up it.

"Get up!" She said as they climbed up the ladder as fast as they can. "Quick! Quick!" She exclaimed.

"Come on!" He stated and they climb out of the trapdoor, and the Cybermen are following them, but they manage to slam the door closed just in time and the Doctor seals it with his sonic screwdriver.

"Oh, good team, Mrs. Moore!" He compliments her and she nods.

* * *

In the Cyber-Conversion floor of Battersea Power station, Rose and Pete are now inside the factory.

"Units upgrading now 6,500. Repeat: 6,500 and rising." A voice of a Cyberman said on the loudspeaker and as they walk along, emotionless, along with hordes of others. A Cybermen steps out in front of Rose and stops her going any further and it didn't scanned her biology.

"You will wait." The Cyberman told her before it moves on "Are you okay?" Pete asked the Time Lady.

Rose tried her best not to look frightened "No." she muttered to Pete.

"Chamber Six now open for human upgrading." The voice of the Cyberman said on the loudspeaker and people file forwards, ready to be upgraded and flames align themselves above incinerators. "All reject stock will be incinerated." The voice of the cyberman added on the loudspeaker.

A woman walks into a cell, the doors closing on her. The blades swoop down on her, converting her... a Cyberman's head is lowered down and there are hundreds of conversion machines all working simultaneously.

"Any sign of Jackie?" Pete asked and a Cyberman turns as though at the sound of his voice and Pete freezes, as the Cyberman considers him and stomps over to him. "You are Peter Tyler. Confirm: you are Peter Tyler." The Cyberman said wanting confirmation.

"Confirmed." Pete confirmed with uncertainty.

"I recognise you. I went first. My name was Jacqueline Tyler." The Cyberman said explaining that she's Jackie.

"No!" Rose exclaimed before she could stop herself

"What?!" Pete asked Cyber-Jackie.

"Sensors detect a binary vascular system, an enhanced respiratory pulmonary system in the Female." Cyber-jackeie said "You are an unknown upgrade." Cyber-Jackie told Rose "He is unprogrammed. Restrain them." Cyber-Jackie added.

"You're lying. You're not her! You're not my Jackie!" Pete said in disbelief and several Cybermen step forwards, ready to restrain him and Rose and Pete lunges forwards to the Cyberman who was Jackie.

"No. I am Cyber-form. Once I was Jacqueline Tyler." The Cyber-Jackie explained.

"But you can't be... not her...!" Rose said as she was horrified at what's happened to the parallel version of her human mother.

"Her brain is inside this body." Cyber-Jackie explained

"Jacks, I came to save you." Pete told his wife that has been converted into a cyberman.

"This man worked with Cybus Industries to create our species. He will be rewarded by force. Take them to Cyber Control and she will be taken for analysis there as well." Cyber-Jackie ordered before stomping away. Rose and Pete are grabbed from behind and marched away.

"They killed her... they just took her and killed her!" Rose said horrified

"Maybe there's a chance, I dunno. Maybe we can reverse it." Pete suggested

"My husband said that when someone has been converted into a cyberman then there'd be nothing we could do." Rose said

"But if... if she remembers..." Pete started and they turn and strain to see try to see Jackie but there was hordes and hordes of Cybermen, and they all look identical.

"Where is she? Which one was it? Which one was her?" Pete asked

"They're uniform. They all look the same!" Rose noted and they are shoved roughly forwards again.

* * *

In Lumic's zeppelin, at the control room after having successfully drugged another guard, Mickey and Jake enter the control room of the zeppelin.

"Nice one." Jake complimented Mickey and they See that the room was deserted. "Nobody's home. Find the transmitter controls." Jake said.

"What do they look like?" Mickey asked Jake.

"Well, I don't know, they might have "Transmitter controls" written in big red letters, just look!" Jake suggested and They both look around the control room. Mickey turns and jumps to see a Cyberman standing in a dark alcove.

"Cyberman!" Jake called and he points his gun at it. But it doesn't move. Confused, Jake moves closer and turns a light switch, illuminating the alcove. Mickey also takes a few steps closer to examine it. It becomes apparent that it is lifeless.

"It's dead. I don't think it was ever alive." Mickey said as he taps it on the head. It sounds hollow.

"It's empty. No brain. It's just a robot suit. It's for display." Mickey guessed

"Okay. Transmitter." Jake said and they head off in different directions to search for the transmitter.

* * *

Back in the cooling tunnels the Doctor and Mrs. Moore edge along a dark, metal corridor. Suddenly, a Cyberman steps out in front of them and they both jump as the Cyberman spooked them.

"You are not upgraded." The Cyberman told them.

"Yeah? Well, upgrade this." Mrs. Moore said sarcastically as she throws a small metal device at the Cyberman and it sticks to its chest and sparks and causes the Cyberman to be electrocuted. It shakes and jerks, and then slumps to the floor.

The Doctor looks delighted "What the hell was that thing?!" He said and they approached the body of the cyberman.

"Electromagnetic bomb. Takes out computers, I figured it might stop the cyber-suit." She explained to him.

"You figured right. Now, let's have a look... He said as he takes out his sonic screwdriver, bends down and holds it to the Cybus logo on its chest. "Now... know your enemy... and the logo on the front... Lumic's turned them into a brand." He added.

He takes the logo off so that they can see inside the Cyberman the Doctor shows Mrs. Moore "Heart of steel..." he said "But look..." he added as he puts his fingers inside the Cyberman, and draws out he shows her the cyberman's dead flesh skin/some dead bodily tissues.

"Is that flesh?" she asked him

"Hmmm... central nervous system. Artificially grown then threaded throughout the suit so it responds like a living thing. Well, it is a living thing. Oh, but look..." he said as he moves his finger through the chest to find an electronic chip and he found it "Emotional inhibitor. Stops them feeling anything." he explained

"But... why?" she asked

"It's still got a human brain... imagine its reaction if it could see itself. Realise itself inside this thing. They'd go insane..." The Doctor starts till she understands what he meant.

"So they cut out the one thing that makes them human." She finished his train of thought

"Because they have to." He added then

"Why am I cold?" The Cyberman spoke with emotion.

"Oh, my God. It's alive. It can feel." Mrs. Moore said as she was shocked.

"We broke the inhibitor." he explained and he Leans over the Cyberman, touches its head. " I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." he said sincerely to the cyberman.

"Why so cold?" the Cyberman repeated itself

"Can you remember your name?" The Doctor asked the cyberman

"Sally. Sally Phelan." The Cyberman told them

"You're a woman..." said as she was shocked

"Where's Gareth?" The Cyberman asked.

"Who's Gareth?" asked the cyberman.

"He can't see me. It's unlucky the night before..." The Cyberman started.

"You're getting married." finished as she realized what the cyberman was saying.

"I'm cold. I'm so cold." The Cyberman said in pain.

"Sorry. You sleep now, Sally. Just go to sleep." The Doctor said quietly as he points his sonic screwdriver just inside the suit and blue light inside and near the emotional inhibitor goes out.

"Sally Phelan didn't die for nothing." He starts and It dawns on him " 'Cos that's the key. The emotional inhibitor, if we could find the code behind it, the cancellation code, then feed it throughout the system into every Cyberman's head..." Mrs. Moore nods " They'd realise what they are..." He said "And what happens then?" asked him.

"I think it would kill them." he said and his Brow furrows, "Could we do that?" he asked

"We've got to. Before they kill everyone else." said and The Doctor looks as though he is finding this decision hard. "There's no choice, Doctor. It's got to be done." said and she then stands up and the Doctor is still staring at Sally's body but neither of them notice that a Cyberman is standing right behind Mrs. Moore and It grabs her by the neck, electrocutes and kills her and the Doctor stands in horror.

"No! No! You didn't have to kill her!" The Doctor yelled in anger as he was furious.

"Sensors detect a binary vascular system and advanced Respiratory system like the female that is an unknown upgrade has been taken for analysis. You are an unknown upgrade as well. You will be taken for analysis as well as her. The Doctor, knows the female the cybermen were talking about was his wife: Rose and he looks disgusted by them, allows himself to be lead off by two other Cybermen.

* * *

Back in the control room of Lumic's Zeppelin, Jake goes over to Mickey who is standing by a panel which does indeed have "Transmitter controls" written on it in large letters.

"The transmitter controls are sealed behind here, we need like, an oxyacetylene or something." Mickey suggested

"Oh, no I forgot to bring it with me." Jake said sarcastically.

"Well, then what do we do?" Mickey asked

"We'll crash the zeppelin." Jake suggested

"With us inside it?" Mickey asked

"We could set it to automatic and then just leg it!" added Let's have a look." he said as they go over to the controls. Jake taps on the keyboard and shakes his head.

" It's locked. There's gotta be an override..." Jake suggested

"Let me have a go. I'm good with computers, trust me." Mickey said as he shoved Jake out of the way and Mickey taps on the keyboard and Jake watches. They are oblivious to tiny red light that has just started flashing and beeping quietly behind the cyber-suit.

* * *

The Doctor is marched into the main control room of Battersea. Rose and Pete are both there too, by the computers "I've been captured, but don't worry, Arkytior and Pete are still out there, they can rescue me..." The Doctor said as he walked around the room "oh well, never mind." He added as he saw Rose and Pete and he knew Rose was captured from what the cyberman that Captured him said.

He approached her "You okay, Love?" He asked Rose.

"Yeah. But they got Jackie." Rose told him.

"We were too late. Lumic killed her." Pete added.

"Then where is he? The famous Mr. Lumic? Don't we get the chance to meet our Lord and Master?" The Doctor asked, raising his voice and looking around.

"He has been upgraded." One of the cyberman in the room told him.

"So he's just like you?" The Doctor asked the cyberman

"He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller." The cyberman informed them

Then they all turn as the sliding doors open. And saw Lumic, who is now a Cyberman, rolls through them. He is sitting on an elaborate chair, covered with wires and tubes. Pete stands in amazement

"This is The Age of Steel and I am its Creator." Lumic said with his newly robotic voice.

* * *

Back in the control room of Lumic's zeppelin

"Almost there." Mickey said as he was tapping on the keyboard of the computer.

"Not bad work." Jake said approving the work that Mickey did and the Cyberman behind them flexes its fingers and It raises its arm and steps out of the alcove.

"It's moving!" Jake screamed in shock, fear and surprised and they move hurriedly out of the way of the cyberman.

"You said it was dead!" Jake exclaimed at Mickey.

"Yeah. But he's still a steel robot." Mickey said and Jake points his gun at it and Mickey pushes his hand down as he thought of an idea.

"Wait a minute. Hey, Cyberman, over here." Mickey called to the cyberman and the Cyberman turns.

"Come on, you brainless lump of metal." Mickey said with anticipation and the Cyberman stomps towards them, as Mickey beckons it forward. "Come and have a go!" Mickey added and the Cyberman raises its fist, ready to strike, Mickey and Jake duck out of the way at the last second, and its fist slams into the transmitter controls. It explodes with blue electricity, destroying both the controls and the Cyberman.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Cyber-Conversion Floor of the Battersea Power station, the ear-pods on the people marching into the factory flash and are deactivated. The people wake up and with horror, realise where they are, "Oh no!" A woman screamed and everyone screamed and ran in different directions.

* * *

Back in the control room of Lumic's zeppelin "The transmitter's down!" Mickey said excitedly and both he and Jake hug excitedly.

* * *

Meanwhile, people flee out of the power station, screaming and knocking the cybermen out of the way.

* * *

Back in the Control Room of Battersea Power station the Doctor, Rose and Pete hear the screams clearly from Lumic's control room and the Cybermen look around. "That's my friends at work. Good boys! Mr Lumic, I think that's a vote for free will." The Doctor said and then he winks.

"I have factories waiting on seven continents. If the ear-pods have failed, then Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world." Lumic stated thinking that he still has not failed.

* * *

Back in Lumic's zeppelin control room, "Hold on, I've logged on to Cyber Control." Mickey said as he has managed to hack into a security camera of sorts overlooking Cyber Control, where the Doctor, Rose and Pete was.

"They're alive! The Doctor and Rose, there they are!" Mickey said, happily.

"Never mind them, what the hell is that thing?" Jake said pointing at Lumic.

"Shh. Has this thing got sound?" Mickey asked and then he taps on the keyboard which gives them audio.

* * *

Back in the Battersea Control room "I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace, and unity, and uniformity." Lumic started.

"And imagination? What about that?" The Doctor started

"Yeah I agree with him, the one thing that lead you here. Imagination, you're killing it, dead!" Rose said agreeing with her husband.

"What are your names?" Lumic asked the Doctor and Rose.

"I'm the Doctor." The Doctor answered

"I'm Rose Smith, wife of the Doctor." Rose answered

"A redundant title, Doctor. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken." Lumic told them.

"Yeah, but that's it!" The Doctor started as he stepped forward with enthusiasm "That's exactly the point!" he said despairingly "Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man... I'd call you a genius, except me and my wife are in the room. But everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that's brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what's there to strive for? Eh? The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop! You'll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts. Lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people." The Doctor told him.

"You are proud of your emotions, Doctor?" Lumic asked him

"Oh, yes." The Doctor answered

"Are you proud of your emotions as well?" Lumic asked Rose "I'm proud of my emotions as well as my husband." Rose answered

"Then tell me, Doctor and Rose, have both of you ever known grief, and rage, and pain?"

"Yes. Yes, we have." The Doctor and Rose answered.

"And they hurt?" Lumic asked them

"Oh yes." The Doctor breathed

"They hurt for me as well." Rose answered

"I could set both of you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain?" Lumic asked the Time Lord and Time Lady.

"You might as well kill us." The Doctor said

"Then I take that option." Lumic told them.

"It's not yours to take. You're a cyber controller. You don't control me or anything with blood in its heart." The Doctor told him

"You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own." Lumic said still thinking that he has won and the Doctor puts his face in his palm, exasperated, "You just don't get it, do you? An army's nothing. 'Cos those ordinary people, they're the key." He said and he then glances at the security camera :The most ordinary person could change the world."

* * *

Back in Lumic's zeppelin control room Mickey nods at what the Doctor was saying

"Some ordinary man or woman... some idiot..." The Doctor said on the speaker and with that Mickey's head jerks up and stares. "All it takes is for him to find, say, the right numbers... say, the right codes... say, for for example, the code behind the emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him. 'Cos even an idiot knows how to use computers these days." The Doctor said on the speaker and Mickey's mouth is open as he's starting to catch on to what the Doctor was saying.

"Knows how to get past firewalls and passwords... knows how to find something encrypted in the Lumic Family Database, under... what was it, Pete? Binary what?" The Doctor asked Pete on the speaker.

"Binary 9." Pete said loudly

"Binary 9." Mickey echoed quietly, sounding like a whisper and he begins to type the code.

"An idiot could find that code. The cancellation code. And he'd keep on typing. Keep on fighting." The Doctor said on the Speaker and he Looks meaningfully into the camera at Jake and Mickey "Anything to save his friends..." he added.

* * *

Back in the control room at Battersea Power station Lumic was getting irritated at the Doctor "Your words are irrelevant." Lumic said.

"Talk too much, that's my problem. Lucky I got you that cheap tariff, Arkytior. For all our long chats. On your phone." The Doctor said, grinning and he glanced back to the camera and made a phone signal with his hand.

* * *

Back on Lumic's Zeppelin in the control room Mickey heard what the Doctor said "The phone..." Mickey said and then he takes out his phone

* * *

Back in the control room of Battersea power station Lumic was at the verge of killing the Doctor unbeknown that if he 'killed' him the Doctor would regenerate "You will be deleted." Lumic told him.

"Yes, delete, control, hash, all those lovely buttons." The Doctor said, ignoring what Lumic said.

* * *

Back on Lumic's zeppelin Mickey types the numbers into his phone as a text message to Rose.

* * *

Back in the control room of Battersea power station "Then of course, my particular favourite, send." The Doctor said and Mickey presses the 'send' button to send his text message to Rose.

* * *

Back in the control room of Battersea power station the Doctor was still ranting "And let's not forget how you seduced all those ordinary people in the first place." He said as Rose's phone beeps, indicating that she has just received a message. "By making every bit of technology compatible with everything else..." he said and then he loiters by one particular computer.

"It's for you." Rose told her husband as she throws it to him and he caught it.

"Like this." he said as he shoves it into a port and It fits perfectly, then All hell breaks loose and the cybermen clutch onto their heads, moaning. The code flashes on every single computer screen.

* * *

In Lumic's zeppelin both Mickey and Jake jump up and down in delight and they both shout

"Yes!"

The Cybermen, all over the factory, fall around and start twitching, crying out and clutching their metal skulls. One of them has caught sight of their reflection in a piece of metal and is whimpering and touching its face and fingering its reflection "I'm sorry." The Doctor told the cyberman and outside the factory, one of the Cybermen falls to its knees and its head explodes.

"What have you done?" Lumic demanded

"I gave them back their souls. They can see what you've done, Lumic! And it's killing them." The Doctor exclaimed and the Doctor, Rose and Pete run from the room "Delete! Delete! Delete!" Lumic yelled.

There were small explosions that erupt all over the factory, whilst the Doctor, Rose and Pete run for their lives, looking for a way out and they try one door but find the way blocked by wailing Cybermen and the Doctor shuts it again "There's no way out!" he told them

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Lumic's zeppelin Jake begins to turn the wheel of the zeppelin "What're you doing?" Mickey asked

"We've gotta get away. If that factory blows up, this balloon's gonna ignite!" Jake told Mickey.

"Take it back!" Mickey demanded angrily at Jake.

"Mickey, they've had it!" Jake said

"I said, take it back!" Mickey demanded, repeating himself and the zeppelin starts to drift away. Mickey shoves Jake away from the wheel.

"We're not leaving them behind." Mickey stated and he turns it the other way but Jake tries to turn it the opposite way again. "There's no way we're leaving them behind!" Mickey said pushing Jake away and he turns the wheel.

The zeppelin is aligned above the roof properly once more. An explosion shakes it.

Mickey takes out his phone and gave it to Jake "Hold it!" He said and Jake holds it to Mickey's ear "Rose?" he said.

* * *

Back with the Doctor, Rose inside Battersea Power Station Rose has her phone to her ear.

"Rose, can you hear me? Head for the roof!" Mickey told her and she looks to her husband and Pete "It's Mickey. He says 'head for the roof'." She told them and the three of them run up a flight of stairs, trying to avoid the explosions and flames as Lumic roars with fury and pulls the tubes binding him to the chair off himself. He stands, roaring with rage.

Rose has reached the top of the ladder to the roof and she leaps over a wall, followed by the Doctor and Pete and they halt when they see the zeppelin. "Mickey, where'd you learn to fly that thing?!" Rose asked with confusion on how he knew to fly a zeppelin.

"Playstation. Just hold on, Rose. I'm coming to get you." Mickey answers her question from inside Lumic's zeppelin

* * *

Back on the Roof, Rose, the Doctor and Pete bolt forwards, flinching at the random explosions all around them.

* * *

Back in the zeppelin Jake tries to take the wheel "You can't go any lower..." Jakes starts before being interrupted by Mickey

"I've got to!" Mickey exclaimed as he took the wheel back from Jake

"You're gonna crush them!" Jake exclaimed and Mickey looks at him, seeing the logic in that.

"There's got to be something. There's got to be." Mickey said to himself "Oh yes." He cried happily as he saw a lever and he rushes over to the lever and pulls it, which opens a hatch and releases a rope ladder down to the roof.

Rose, the Doctor and Pete run to the ladder "You've got to be kidding." Pete said to himself. "Arkytior, honey, get up!" The Doctor told Rose and Rose starts to climb the ladder.

Mickey pushes another lever and walks back to the wheel "Hold on tight, we're going up!" Jake grins as he looks out the window "Welcome to Mickey smith Airlines. Please enjoy your flight. Woo!" Mickey said and then he laughs and spins the wheel.

As the zeppelin ascends upwards Rose, the Doctor and Pete are clinging to the rope ladder

"We did it! Mickey did it!" Rose said happily and Pete struggles up the ladder and the ladder is suddenly jerked downwards and Rose screams as they nearly fall off and they look down, and saw Lumic is hanging onto the bottom rungs and he starts to climb up after them and The Doctor takes his sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket.

"Pete! Take this!" The Doctor told Pete to do and Pete stretches his hand out and the Doctor drops his sonic screwdriver into Pete's outstretched hand. "Use it! Hold the button down! Press it against the rope, just do it!" The Doctor explains to Pete on how to use the sonic screwdriver.

"Jackie Tyler, this is for her!" Pete exclaimed as he presses the button down and holds the sonic screwdriver against the rope ladder and Lumic gets closer and closer and for a moment it seems like it isn't going to work, but then the rope finally snaps and Lumic falls down to earth in slow motion "Nooooooo!" Lumic cried angrily as he falls towards the factory.

Pete laughs with delight. Lumic falls into the flames below. Pete, Rose and the Doctor begin to struggle up the ladder again as the zeppelin carries them away to safety.

* * *

Later the Doctor goes into the dark TARDIS, carrying the power cell and He puts it in place, and the TARDIS springs to life. The lights come back on and it begins to hum again and a huge grin spreads across the Doctor's face.

Meanwhile outside the Tardis which was the Thames Embankment Rose and Pete stands Pete looks and nods towards the Tardis "So, what happens inside that thing, then?" He asked Rose.

"Do you wanna see?" Rose asked him

"No, I don't think so. But you two, you know, all that stuff about different worlds... Who are you?" Pete asked Rose.

"It's like you say. Imagine there are different worlds. Parallel worlds. Worlds with another Pete Tyler... Jackie Tyler's still alive... and they adopted a daughter... that is in reality... an alien." Rose said and as she says it carefully, she looks into his eyes and the realisation dawns on him.

"I've gotta go..." He said in shock.

"But if you just look inside..." She stops him

"No, I can't. There's all those Lumic factories out there. All those Cybermen still in storage. Someone's got to tell the authorities what happened. Carry on the fight." Pete told her and The Doctor stand in the doorway of the Tardis

"Arkytior?" The Doctor called out to Rose and they look around he walked over to them.

"Honey, We've only got five minutes of power... we've gotta go." The Doctor told his wife.

"My husband could show ya..." She tried wanting to show him that the Tardis was another dimension.

"Thank you. For everything." Pete said and Rose has tears in her eyes, now and he's looks at him intensely.

"Dad." She said trying to tell him he is her adoptive human father in another universe.

"Don't. Just... just don't." Pete said and he walks away.

The Doctor scratches the back of his neck as he always does when he's uncomfortable, and looks at his wife and then both Mickey and Jake approach, Mickey holds the Doctor's suit.

"Here it is! I found it. Not a crease." Mickey said and the Doctor takes it

"My suit! Good man!" He cried happily to Mickey.

He turned to Jake "Now then, Jake, we've gotta run. But one more thing; Mrs Moore. Her real name is Angela Price. She's got a husband out there. And children. Find them. Tell them how she died saving the world." He told them

"Yeah, course I will." Jake told him

"Off we go, then!" The Doctor said

"Uh... thing is, I'm staying." Mickey told them.

The Doctor stars at Mickey "You're doing what?" he asked in confusion

Rose stares at Mickey as well, and was already upset "You can't." She told him

"It sort of balances out, 'cos this world lost its Ricky. But there's me. And there's work to be done with all those Cybermen still out there." Mickey told them as his voice trembles

"But you can't stay." Rose said trying to convince him to stay with them "Rose, my gran's here. She's still alive. My old gran, remember her?"

Rose tries to hold her tears back "Yeah. I told the Doctor about her today." She told him

"She needs me." Mickey said

"What about me? What if I need you?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, but Rose... you don't. It's just you and him, isn't it? And you'll outlive me Rose " Mickey said as he looks at the Doctor, and then back to Rose. "We had something a long time ago, when you were still human and before you opened your watch, but... not anymore." Mickey told her.

"Well... I wish we could come back." Rose said close to tears.

"I know but we can't anymore Arkytior. We can't. I told Mickey, travel between parallel worlds is impossible. We only got here by accident. We... we fell through a crack in time. When we leave... we've got to close it. We can't ever return." The Doctor said and he looks at Mickey, as if asking him if this is really what he wants and Rose looks defeated and Mickey glances at her, then holds his hand out to the Doctor "Doctor." Mickey said and then he shook his hand

"Take my wife's phone. It's got the code. Get it out there. Stop those factories." The Doctor said and Mickey nods back. "And good luck. Mickey the Idiot." The Doctor teased and Mickey slaps his cheek with a twinkle in his eye "Watch it!" Mickey said and Then the Doctor saunters back to the TARDIS and slips inside, Rose gives Mickey her phone and he puts it inside his pocket.

"Thanks. We've had a laugh though, haven't we?" Mickey asked Rose and she nods, and is tearful. "Seen it all, been there and back... who would have thought, me and you off the old estate, flying through the stars finding out you were actually an alien?" Mickey said

"All those years just sitting there... imagining what we'd do one day..." Rose starts and then her voice breaks. You and my human self never saw this, did we?" Rose asked and They put their arms around each other for a final embrace.

"Go on, you'll miss your flight." Mickey said and Rose clutches Mickey tighter, burying her head in his shoulder. When she pulls away, she can't look at him. She goes back to the TARDIS, sobbing. When she reaches the threshold, she looks back at him one last time, and then goes inside, closing the door behind her. a'Jake, you wanna watch this." Mickey told Jake.

Jake goes to stand next to Mickey as the TARDIS dematerializes and was confused on how it disappeared "What... the hell?" He said in confusion "That's the Doctor... in the TARDIS... with his wife: Rose Tyler." Mickey explained

* * *

Soon the TARDIS materialize in the living room of Jackie from the Doctor and Rose's universe and Jackie rushes out to investigate and Rose opens the door and gazes at her. "You're alive..." Rose said and Jackie raises her eyebrows. "Oh, mum. You're alive." Rose added as she flings her arms around her. Jackie seems slightly nonplussed but pleased to see her nonetheless.

"Well, I was the last time I looked..." Jackie told her and The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and watches them. "What is it? What's happened, sweetheart?" Jackie asked and Rose just clings tighter to her, eyes screwed shut.

Jackie looks at the Doctor "What's wrong? Where did you go?" She asked him.

"Far away. That was... far away." He said

"Where's Mickey?" Jackie asked, wondering where Mickey was.

"He's gone home." He said, not wanting to tell her that he wanted to stay in a parallel universe and Jackie hugs Rose back comfortingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> R.I.P Helen Griffin 1959-2018


	11. The Idiot's lantern part 1

**Disclaimer:I don't own Doctor Who that belongs to the BBC**

A few weeks later the Doctor got Rose her own psychic paper and the Doctor pilotted their Tardis to New York City in the 1960s and the Tardis lands on a pavement and the bottom of the TARDIS and Rose was wearing Two pink, high heeled shoes and step out onto the pavement, along with a big pink skirt and layers of netting beneath she was also wearing a full 50's dress, brushes a strand of hair from her eyes as she walks out onto the street, looking around.

"Theta, I thought we'd be going for the Vegas era, you know, the white flares and the chest hair." She said and growled seductively as she said that and the Doctor pokes his head round the TARDIS door, his head gelled back, teddy-boy style "Arkytior, you're kidding, aren't you? You wanna see Elvis, you go in the late 50's! The time before burgers." He told his wife and he disappears back inside. When they called him the Pelvis and he still had a waist" and Rose laughs as he said that.

"What's more, you see him in style!" He added from inside the Tardis and she looks round to the TARDIS as she can hear the sound of an engine...as the Doctor rides out of the TARDIS on a blue late-50's moped and Rose laughs in amusement as the Doctor stops, big sunglasses and a white helmet on his head.

"You goin' my way, doll?" He said pulling an Elvis-style expression and accent Rose putts on a pair of pink sunglasses "Is there any other way to go, daddy-o?" She said in an American accent as she walks towards the moped "Straight from the fridge, man!" She adds.

The Doctor was delighted "Hey, you speak the lingo!" He said and he tosses her a pink version of his helmet, and she catches it and puts it on.

"Yeah well... me, mum, Cliff Richard movies every Bank Holiday Monday." She said as she sits behind him on the moped.

"Ah, Cliff! I knew Jackie would be a Cliff fan." He said before they drove down the street.

"Where we off to?" She asked over the noise of the engine of the moped.

"Ed Sullivan TV Studios, Elvis did 'Hound Dog' on one of the shows, there were loads of complaints. Bit of luck, we'll just catch it." He replied.

"And that'll be TV studios in, what, New York City?" She asked her husband

"That's the one, Arkytior!" he said happily.

Then a red London bus drives past the end of the street, and the Doctor stops. and Rose spots a red post box and a Union Jack flag bunting hanging from rooftop to rooftop, The Doctor looks bemused, as Rose laughs it off. "I don't think we're in New York, honey." she told him

"Well... this could still be New York, I mean this looks very New York to me... sort of... Londony New York, mind.." He reassured her.

"Ok, Theta, then what are all the Union Jack flags for?" She said and he looked up and saw Union Jacks as well.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose walked past a man who opened the doors to his van and two errand boys take out a television and carry it into a house and the house owner looks on. "There you go, sir, all wired up for the great occasion." the man told the house owner and both The Doctor and Rose heard him.

"The great occasion? What d'you mean?" The Doctor asked the man.

"Where've you been living, out in the Colonies? Coronation, of course." The man told him

"What Coronation's that, then?" The Doctor asked him.

"What d'you mean? The Coronation."

The Doctor looks blank, turns to Rose for help.

"The Queen's. Doctor he's talking about Queen Elizabeth's Coronation!" Rose told him and he realized what the date was.

"Oh! Oh, is this June 1st, 1953?!" He asked the man.

"Last time I looked. Time for a lovely bit of pomp and circumstance, what we do best." The Man told him.

Rose looks at the chimneys "Look at all the TV aerials... looks like everyone's got one. That's weird, my nan said tellies were so rare they all had to pile into one house." she said

"Not round here, love. Magpie's Marvellous Tellies, only five quid a box." the man said as he introduced himself to the Doctor and Rose.

The Doctor wanders around the street, thinking "Oh but this is a brilliant year! Classic! Technicolour, Everest climbed, everything off the ration." He said

"The Nation throwing off the shadows of war and looking forward to a happier, brighter future!" He adds as he puts on a typical BBC English accent and Rose laughs and then suddenly, they heard a woman's shout are heard "Someone help me, please! Ted!"

They saw a man with a blanket over his head is being bundled into a black police car by two suited men and both the Doctor and Rose ran over.

"Leave him alone, it's my husband!" The Woman screamed as she panicked

"What's going on?" The Doctor asked as the blanketed man is pushed into the back seat as a teenage boy runs out of a house. "Oi, what are you doing?!

"Police business, now get out of the way, sir!" One of the suited men said as he addresses the Doctor.

Rose looked to the teenage boy "Who did they take, do you know him?" She asked him

"Must be Mr. Gallagher..." The teenager guessed and the car drives off, leaving the man the police men took in despair. and the teenager's mother comes out of the Connelly house "It's happening all over the place. They're turning into monsters..." The teenager told them as his father storms out of the house.

"Tommy! Not one word!" The teenager's father shouts at his son and both Rose and the Doctor look at the teenager's father. "Get inside now!" The Father ordered his son. and the teenager did as he as told "Sorry, I'd better do as he says..." the teenager said as he did as his father told him to do and the woman whose husband was taken is still sobbing and the Doctor puts on his sunglasses again and both he and Rose ran over to the moped and kicks it into life and the boy's father watches them drive off.

As the Doctor and Rose chases the police car, the police car hurtles round a corner and tall corrugated metal gates open at the end of the street that the police car is on and allows the police car through, closing behind it. Immediately, a wooden market barrow is wheeled in front of the gates and two men start sweeping the floor, as if they'd always been there and the Doctor and Rose come round the corner on the moped and stop short of the market stall.

"Lost 'em! How'd they get away from us?" The Doctor said as he was bemused and confused.

"Surprised they didn't turn back and arrest you for reckless driving, have you actually passed a driving test for a car, Theta?!" Rose asked her husband the Doctor wasn't listening to her "Men in black? Vanishing police cars? This is Churchill's England, not Stalin's Russia!" The Doctor said.

"Monsters, that boy said..." Rose muttered thoughtfully and the Doctor turns to her. "Maybe we should go and ask the neighbours."

"That's what I love about you since we were Time Tots. The domestic approach." The Doctor said to Rose sweetly and she grins "Thank you..." Then she thinks about it as the Doctor kicks the moped back into life "Hold on, Theta was that an insult...?"

"Arkytior, if that sounded like an insult then I didn't mean it. Okay, sweetheart?" He told his wife as they went back to the street.

* * *

They went to the house of where the teenager, the teenager's mother and the teenager's father lived and the Doctor knocked on the Door and the teenager's father opens the door that the Doctor and Rose were in front of, and they both had identical cheesy grins "Hiiiiii!" The Doctor and Rose both said in unison the teenager's father regards them both suspiciously "Who are you, then?" He asked both gallifreyans

"Let's see then, judging by the look of you, family man, nice house, decent wage, fought in the war, therefore, I represent Queen and country!" He said as he took out and holds his the psychic paper with a flourish "Just doing a little check of Her Majesty's forthcoming subjects for the great day. Don't mind if I come in? Nah, didn't think you did, thank you!" He barges past the teenager's father before he can protest and Rose follows suit as they all go into the living room.

The Doctor looked around the living room "Not bad, very nice! Very well kept! I'd like to congratulate you, Mrs...?" he asked the teenager's mother's surname

"Connolly." the teenager's mother answered

"Now then Rita, I can handle this. This gentleman's a proper representative!" told his wife and the Doctor gives Rita, who looks terrified, a wink, and Rose perches herself on the arm of a chair.

"Don't mind the wife, she rattles on a bit." continued

"Well, maybe she should rattle on a bit more." The Doctor stated and both the teenager and both look shocked. "I'm not convinced you're doing your patriotic duty." The Doctor said as he continues, unfazed.

He glances briefly at the flags around the room, waiting to be put up "Nice flags. Why are they not flying?" He asked Mr. Connolly

"There we are Rita, I told you, get them up, Queen and country!" said after a nervous pause and The Doctor looks sceptical, and begins to move over to .

"I'm sorry..." said and she gets up and starts to do what she was told

"Get it done! Do it now." said to his wife.

"Hold on a minute..." The Doctor started.

"Like the gentleman says." said

"Hold on a minute. You've got hands, Mr. Connolly. Two big hands! Why is that your wife's job?" The Doctor asked .

"It's housework, innit?" answered

"And that's a woman's job?" The Doctor asked him.

"Course it is!" said

"Mr. Connolly, what gender is the Queen?" The Doctor asked him.

"She's a female." answered as he was growing increasing defensive.

"And are you suggesting the Queen does the housework?" The Doctor countered as a small smile grows on the teenager's face as he watches the Doctor win the confrontation, as Eddie inevitably gives in to logic after a hesitation, even Mrs. Connolly seems a little heartened by her husband's humiliation.

"No! Not at all!" said and the Doctor hands Eddie a string of flags, giving him an insistent stare "Then get busy."

"Right, yes sir." said and he sets about hanging the flags, feigning enthusiasm. Neither the Doctor, Tommy or Rose seem fooled.

"You'll be proud of us, sir! We'll have Union Jacks left, right and centre!" said and Rose suddenly rises, hands on hips, as the Doctor slowly paces back across the room " 'Scuse me, Mr Connolly, hang on a minute! Union Jacks?" She asked.

pauses in his work to look at her "Yes, that's right, isn't it?" He asked not knowing what's wrong.

"That's the Union Flag. It's the Union Jack only when it's flown at sea." She told him and the teenager's smile grows into a grin, as Eddie tries to humble himself.

"Oh... oh, I'm sorry, I do apologise!" told her and Rose smiled widely "Well, don't get it wrong again, there's a good man. Now get to it!" She said with some force and

hastily gets back to work, and Rose gives the Doctor a coy smile. Even he looks slightly bewildered! Rose and the Doctor both sit on the sofa, making themselves comfortable and grinning.

"Right then! Nice and comfy, at Her Majesty's leisure!" he said aloud "Union Flag?" he asked Rose quietly

"I studied a lot more history than you did in the academy, Theta." She said quietly to her husband.

"Yep you did, Arkytior." he said to her quietly.

"Anyway, I'm the Doctor and this is my wife, Rose, and you are?" He asked the teenager his name who seems surprised to be noticed.

"Tommy." The teenager answered.

The Doctor and Rose shift aside, making a space for Tommy to sit in between them on the couch Well, sit yourself down, Tommy." The Doctor said and Tommy's mother sat on the chair next to the couch and they all look at the television "Have a look at this. I love telly, don't you?" he asked him.

"Yeah, I think it's brilliant!" Tommy said

"Good man!" The Doctor replied and they watch the programme, apparently about fossils, silently for a few moments before the Doctor turns around to check on , who is still hanging the flags.

"Keep working Mr. C!" The Doctor said to and the Doctor turns to Tommy's mother, dropping the cheerful act and speaking quietly, so that does not hear "Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong?" The Doctor asked her

"Did you say you were a doctor?" Tommy's mother asked somewhat reluctant.

"Yes I am." The Doctor said

"Can you help her? Oh please, can you help her, Doctor?" Tommy's mother asked him and Tommy's father overhears the last part of the conversation, and interrupts "Now then Rita, I don't think the gentleman needs to know..."

"No, the gentleman does!" The Doctor said cutting Tommy's father and Tommy's mother begins to cry, and Rose moves forward on her seat to address her "Tell us what's wrong, and we can help." Rose said to her gently and Tommy's mother's sobs grow louder, and she just shakes her head helplessly and Rose goes over and wraps a comforting arm around her, and the Doctor watches with a concerned frown. "I'm sorry, come on, come on..."

"Hold on a minute! Queen and country's one thing, but this is my house!" Tommy's father said and then he looks down at the flags in his hands, chucking them down. The Doctor props his head on his forearm and balled fist, appearing calm but giving the distinct impression that he's restraining himself. "What the... what the hell am I doing? Now you listen here, Doctor! You may have fancy qualifications, but what goes on under my roof is my business!" Tommy's father said.

"All the people are being bundled into..." The Doctor started and was interrupted.

"I am talking!" Tommy's father said and the Doctor stands, raising his voice even louder than Eddie's and literally spitting in his face as he looms over him.

"And I'm not listening! Now you, Mr. Connolly, are staring into a deep, dark PIT of trouble if you don't let me help." Eddie is clearly shaken, and both Tommy and Rita look scared again, unsure how to react. Rose still holds onto Rita, giving her reassurance. "So I'm ordering you, sir, to tell me what's going on!" The Doctor continued and Eddie tries to think of something to say, but is stopped by the sound of banging coming from upstairs. His eyes and the Doctor's roll upwards, Tommy looks around nervously, and Rita sighs and shakes her head.

"She won't stop." Eddie said as he was shaken with fear and They hear loud banging on the ceiling.

"She never stops." Eddie said and Tommy finds the confidence to explain in a slightly shaky voice, and the Doctor turns to regard him. As he speaks, Rita looks upset and embarrassed, and Eddie guiltily tries to regain some composure. "We started hearing stories, all round the place. People who've... changed. Families keeping it secret 'cause they were scared. The police started finding out. We don't know how, no one does. They just... turn up, come to the door and take 'em. Any time of the day or night." Tommy explained

"Show us." The Doctor said

* * *

They took both gallifreyans upstairs to a locked door of a room and Tommy opened the door and peeked around it cautiously "Gran? It's Tommy." Tommy said and he opens the door wider, allowing the Doctor, Rose and the others behind to see inside the darkened room.

"'S all right Gran, I've brought help." Tommy added as they saw that Tommy's Grandmother is standing by the window, a silhouette moving slowly towards them. Tommy steps a little further inside the room. He turns on the light, and everyone saw that she has no face, all the features are gone, and it is smoothed over. Rose gulps, and the Doctor simply stares with a furrowed brow.

Unbeknown to them a black police car arrives outside the house as the Doctor peers at the blank face. Rose stands near him, Tommy and Rita are close together behind the Doctor, and Eddie remains completely outside of the room with a grim expression.

"Her face is completely gone," the Doctor said with an air of fascination and then scans Tommy's Grandmother's head on the remnants of her face with his sonic screwdriver, and Rose still looks uneasy.

"Scarcely an electrical impulse left. Almost complete neural shutdown, she's ticking over, like her brain has been... wiped clean," he added

He puts the sonic screwdriver away, but still examines her face.

"What're we gonna do, Doctor? We can't even feed her," Tommy asked, not knowing what to do with his grandmother but then they are interrupted by the crash of the policemen entering the house.

"We've got company..." Rose mumbled

"It's them, they've come for her," Rita cried and Eddie appears to be the only one pleased by this.

"What was she doing before this happened? Where was she?" The Doctor asked quickly and

Rita hesitates as the policemen clamber up the stairs.

"Tell me, quickly, think," The Doctor asked

"I can't think! She doesn't leave the house! She was just..." Tommy starts but was cut off by the entrance of a big, burly man and some supporting officers. The Doctor tries to buy some time.

"Hold on a minute! There are three important, brilliant, and complicated reasons why you should listen to me and my wife . One..." The Doctor starts trying to buy some time but much to Rose's horror, the burly man punches the Doctor in the face, hard and he collapses, unconscious.

"Theta!" Rose cried her husband's nickname from the academy and the policemen take the opportunity to throw a blanket over Tommy's grandmother and usher her to the stairs, as Rose slaps the Doctor's cheeks in an attempt to wake him up.

"Leave her alone," Rita cried worrying about her mother and the men barge Rita aside, leaving Tommy to catch her. Eddie just pushes the men away, encouraging them to leave quicker.

They all go down the stairs apart from Rose who is left trying to wake her husband.

"Mum!" Rita yelled trying to stop the policemen from taking her mother.

Back upstairs Rose was still trying to wake her husband up

"Theta! Theta," Rose said, tapping her husband on the cheeks to wake him up.

"Don't hurt her," Rita said worrying about her mother and as the men reach their car, and Eddie blocks the door "Back inside, Rita!" Eddie ordered his wife.

"She's my mother!" Rita protests

"Back inside now, I said!" Eddie warned.

Back with Rose she still slaps the Doctor's cheeks, and he suddenly sits up as if nothing had happened.

"Ah, hell of a right hook! Have to watch out for that!" He told her and then he quickly stands and ran down the stairs quickly and as he exits the house he finds out that he was too late, as he arrives as the police car drives off, with Eddie still blocking the doorway "Don't fight it, back inside, Eddie says to his family and the Doctor pushes past and runs to the moped, as Rose comes down the stairs as fast as she can in her dainty shoes and Eddie restrains Tommy and Rita.

"Rose, come on," the Doctor said calling his wife by her title and human name

"Get back inside!" Eddie said again to his family Rose pauses at the entrance to the living room, noticing red, buzzing tendrils of electricity coming out of the television.

"But Dad, they took her," Tommy said to his father.

"Go back inside, don't fight it..." Eddie said as he didn't care and the Doctor urgently calls out for his wife again as he fastens his helmet. "Arkytior, we're gonna lose them again!" Rose is torn between running to the Doctor and watching the television but she decides to run to her husband.

Eddie still holds back his son "Dad, they took her! That was Gran and they took her!" Tommy said and Eddie still didn't care as he said "Come on, back inside now."

* * *

The black police car swerves around a bend and straight through the same wooden doors of the warehouse that the Doctor and Rose reached earlier. The Doctor and Rose arrived, some way behind on the much slower vehicle, only to see that the car has disappeared in what appears to be a dead end. The doors are closed and there is only the same two workmen, apparently clearing away some rubbish from the stall and sweeping the street. The Doctor stops and swiftly works out what must have happened, both now and earlier.

"Oh, very good! Very good!" he said appreciatively to the men.

"Don't you agree Arkytior," The Doctor asked his wife

Then they got off the moped and walks around the building, looking for a way in and they eventually finds a small gate at the side, and they break in as the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver.

As they entered the building they saw two policemen locking up some more cage-like gates. they walk over when the policemen disappeared , and saw that they contain several dozen people. Rose felt disgusted and the Doctor opens those gates too with his sonic screwdriver, and finds that the people in the enclosure all have no faces. They can only clench and unclench their fists in a creepy, almost mechanical manner, and shuffle towards the Doctor and Rose. Then suddenly, a bright light flares on and The Doctor turns around and squints, seeing the two policemen who had locked up the cages earlier, standing in front of the headlamps of their car "You two, stay exactly where you are," one of them ordered both Gallifreyans.

* * *

The police officers took them to an office of one of the policemen and one of the police officers left "You Two, start from the beginning, tell me everything both of you know," the police officer in the room asked the gallifreyan couple.

The police officer is standing over the Doctor and Rose, who are sitting on the other side of the police officer's desk. "Well... for starters... I know you can't wrap your hand around your elbow and make your fingers meet," The Doctor said

"Sir, don't get clever with me. You and this woman who I presume is your wife here were both there today at Florizel Street, and now breaking into this establishment. Now, both of you are connected with this. Make no mistake," The Police officer said as he was pointing his finger at the doctor, reprimand.

"Well, the thing is, Detective Inspector Bishop..." The Doctor starts but was interrupted by the police officer.

"How do you know my name?" Bishop asked confused on how the Time Lord knew his name

"My husband knows it because we can see that it's written inside your collar." Rose explains and Bishop looks slightly embarrassed and adjusts his collar.

"Bless your mum. But, I can't help thinking, Detective Inspector, you're not exactly doing much detective inspecting. Are you?" The Doctor stated

"I agree with my husband on this you are not doing much inspecting as you're supposed to," Rose said as she agreed with her husband

"I'm doing everything in my power," Detective Inspector Bishop told them

"All you're doing is grabbing those faceless people and hiding them as fast as you can. Don't tell me, orders from above, hmm? Coronation Day of Princess Elizabeth... The eyes of the world are on London Town... so any sort of problem just gets swept out of sight." The Doctor guessed and he spins from side to side in the chair, completely relaxed but Bishop looks slightly irritated that the Doctor already seems knows all about their inside goings-on and guessed that Rose knew everything as well.

"The nation of The United KIngdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has an imagine to maintain," Bishop told them

"Doesn't it drive you mad? Doing nothing? Don't you wanna get out there and investigate?" The Doctor asked the Detective Inspector, incredulous.

"Course I do. But..." Bishop starts and then he sits down, ready to confide in the Doctor and Rose.

"With all the crowds expected, we haven't got the man-power. Even if we did... this is... beyond anything we've ever seen." He added as he was helpless "I just don't know anymore. Twenty years on the force..." Then the Doctor leans towards him, listening carefully "I don't even know where to start. We haven't the faintest clue what's going on." Bishop said, not knowing what was going on.

"Well... that could change," The Doctor said and Bishop was confused on how it could change.

"How?" Bishop asked as both the Doctor and Rose stood up, looking down at Bishop, it's as though their roles have been reversed.

"Start from the beginning. Tell us everything you know." The Doctor said

Bishop started explaining everything he knew saying that the people who turned faceless are at houses only with Tvs from Magpie Electricals and The three of them were standing by a large map on a stand "We started finding them about a month ago. Persons left sans visage. Heads just... blank," Bishop told them

"Is there any sort of pattern?" The Doctor asked as he examines a file he finds on a nearby desk.

"Yes, spreading out from North London. All over the City. Men, women, kids... grannies... the only real lead is there's been quite a large number in..." Bishop starts

"Florizel Street," The Doctor finishes Bishop's sentence.

"Doctor, I saw red, buzzing tendrils of electricity coming out of the television in the Connolly's before I went outside," Rose told her husband and the Doctor then decided that tomorrow they would to go to the Connolly's house and ask Tommy about what happened to his grandma and what she was doing when she changed.

* * *

The Next morning dawned as the Doctor Rose, and Bishop burst out of the gates into the dawn sunlight.

"The big day dawns..." Bishop says and both the Doctor and Rose does not reply and they both moves on immediately.

The Doctor knocks on the Connolly's door and Tommy opens the door "Tommy, talk to us." he said and Tommy steps outside the door, closing it behind him.

"Me and my husband need to know exactly what happened inside your house," Rose told him and then suddenly Eddie pulls the door open violently and rounds on Tommy.

"What the blazes do you think you're doing?" He asked his son in anger.

"I wanna help, dad," Tommy told his father.

"Mr. Connolly..." The Doctor and Rose said warningly but Eddie interrupted them

"Shut your faces, you two. Whoever you two are. We can handle this ourselves." He told both gallifreyans and then he turns back to Tommy "Listen you, little twerp. You're hardly out of the bloomin' cradle, so I don't expect you to understand. But I've got a position to maintain." The Doctor, Rose and Bishop watch. "People round here respect me. It matters what people think," Eddie added.

"Is that why you did it, dad?" Tommy asked and Eddie was taken aback "What d'you mean? Did what?" He asked his son.

"You ratted on gran. How else would the police know where to look? Unless some coward told them..." Tommy told him "How dare you? You think I fought a war just so a mouthy little scum like you could call me a coward?" Eddie raged at Tommy

"You don't get it, do you? You fought against fascism and National Socialism(Nazism), remember? People telling you how to live, who you could be friends with, who you could fall in love with, who could live and who had to die. Don't you get it? You were fighting so that little twerps like me could do what we want. Say what we want. Now you've become just like them. You've been informing on everyone, haven't you? Even gran. All to protect your precious reputation." Tommy told his father and Rita heard it as she joins them.

"Eddie... is that true?" she asked her husband

"I did it for US, Rita! She was filthy. A filthy, disgusting thing." Eddie admitted and

Rita was shocked "She's my mother. All the others, you informed on all the people in our street, our friends," she said quietly

"I had to. He starts and he flails slightly "I did the right thing...!" Eddie said.

"The right thing for us... or for you, Eddie?" She countered and Eddie stares at her. Rita turns to Tommy "You go, Tommy. You go with the Doctor and do some good. Get away from this house. It's poison. We had a ruddy monster under this roof, all right, but it weren't my mother!" Rita said

Close to tears, she goes back inside, slamming the door on Eddie's face "Rita!" Eddie said as he looked and felt hurt on what she just did to him.

"Tommy," The Doctor asked and then Tommy, the Doctor, Rose and Bishop walk away down the street, leaving Eddie alone, locked outside his house.


	12. The Idiot's lantern part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor who that goes to the BBC**

The streets are busy as people prepare for a street party as the Doctor, Rose, Tommy and Bishop walk along "Tommy, tell me and my wife about that night. The night she changed," The Doctor asked Tommy wanting to know how Tommy's grandmother became faceless.

"She was just watching the telly," Tommy stated and as tommy said that Rose thought to herself 'It looks like I was correct,'

'Correct about what, Arkytior,' The Doctor asked Rose telepathically through their bond.

'Look up,' was all she replied telepathically through their bond and he looked up and saw dozens of tv aerials (or antennas if you're an American like me)

"I said it. I guessed it straight away, of course I did. I always did at the academy," She said.

"All these aerials in one little street, how come," the Doctor asked Tommy.

"Bloke up the road, Mr. Magpie, he's selling them cheap," Tommy explained and without even waiting for Tommy to finish his sentence, the Doctor and Rose ran down the road towards Magpie's shop.

"Is he, now," Bishop asked Tommy, confusedly

"Come on!" The Doctor yelled at Bishop to come with him and Rose and he and Tommy ran followed them.

* * *

As they reached Magpie's shop they found that the door was locked and then without thinking, the Doctor smashes the glass in Magpie's door in order to gain entry to the shop "Here, you can't do that," Bishop said protesting what the Doctor just did but the Doctor ignores him.

The Doctor opens the door and strides over to the counter. "Shop," he yelled and then he presses the bell on the counter repeatedly. "If you're here, come out and talk to me! MAGPIE," he shouts to the back of the shop

"Maybe he's out," Tommy suggested

"Looks like it," the Doctor and Rose agreed with Tommy and then

The Doctor goes to behind the counter and saw drawers searched through them and he finds the device that looks like a cross between a portable radio and TV.

"Oh, hello... this isn't right. This is very much not right."

He licks it to see what it was made of, and both Tommy and Bishop were shocked that the Doctor licked but Rose wasn't cause she could do it as well. "Tastes like iron. Bakelite," he told them before he places it down on the counter. "Put together with human hands, yes, but the design itself," he starts and then he scans it with his sonic screwdriver.

"Oh, beautiful work. That is so simple," He muttered

"That's incredible. It's like a television, but portable. A portable television," Bishop exclaims and The Doctor raises his sonic screwdriver, points it around the room, the televisions turn on to static "It's not the only power source in this room," the Doctor told them as the Doctor's screwdriver whirrs, the static gradually fades away and on each screen is a different face, the faces of the people who were taken by the Wire. They all look terrified, mouthing pleas for help. The Doctor looks around at them, brow furrowed. Tommy notices his gran's face in one "Gran," Tommy said as he looks horrified.

Just then Magpie enters from the back of the shop "What do you think you're doing," he asked them.

The Doctor goes into Magpie's face "I want all those people restored and I think that's beyond a little backstreet electrician so tell me, who's really in charge here,"

Magpie flinches at the Doctor's anger and a tv behind them flicked itself on and a woman appeared in it and spoke to them "Yoo-hoo! I think that must be me," The Doctor turns to her, surprised.

"Ooh, I bet this one and the blonde female are both smart as paint," the woman in the TV stated and the Doctor approaches the woman in the TV.

"Is she talking to us," Bishop asked, confusedly as he recognized the woman but didn't know how.

"Sorry gentlemen and lady, I'm... I'm afraid you've brought this on yourselves. May I introduce you all to my new... friend." Magpie told them.

"Jolly nice to meet you," the woman in the TV said and Bishop then recognized how she looked familiar to him "Oh my God, it's her, that woman off the telly."

"No, it's just using her image," The Doctor told Bishop

"What... what are you," Tommy asked the woman in the TV.

"I'm the Wire, and I will gobble you up, pretty boy. Every last morsel. And when I have feasted, I shall regain the corporeal body, which my fellow-kind denied me," the Woman in the TV told them and then the screen gradually colourizes.

"Good Lord, colour television," Bishop exclaims as she's never seen television with colour before.

"A decade too early color television," Rose told the wire.

"So your own people tried to stop you," The Doctor asked the wire.

"They executed me. But I escaped, in this form, and fled across the stars," The Wire told them

"And now you're trapped in the television," The Doctor told her and the smirk fades from the Wire's face, and with it, the colour from the television "Not for much longer," she told them.

"Is this what got my gran," Tommy asked

"Yes, Tommy. It feeds off the electrical activity of the brain, but it gorges itself like a great overfed pig. Taking people's faces, their essences, it stuffs itself," The Doctor explained.

"And you let her do it, Magpie," Bishop blamed Magpie

"I had to! She allowed me my face! She's promised to release me at the time of manifestation." Magpie told them.

"What does that mean," Tommy asked the Wire

"The appointed time, my crowning glory," the Wire said as she gave them a hint and Bishop figured out what the Wire meant.

"Doctor, Rose, the coronation," Bishop exclaimed

"For the first time in history, millions gathered around a television set," The Doctor said and he approaches the Wire, gloating "But you're not strong enough yet, are you? You can't do it all from here. That's why you need this," he said as he picks the portable television back up.

"You need something more powerful! This will turn a big transmitter into a big receiver," The Doctor explains

"What a clever thing you are! But why fret about it? why not just relax? Kick off your shoes and enjoy the coronation. Believe me, you'll be glued to the screen." the Wire said

Lines of red sparking light suddenly pull all four faces into the Wire's TV, the Doctor, Rose, Tommy and the Inspector.

"Doctor! Rose," Tommy and Bishop shouts the name of both the Doctor and Rose

"Hungry! Hungry! The Wire is hungry! Ah! These two are tasty. Oh! I'll have lashings of them! Delicious! Ah!" The Wire said but just then The Doctor and Rose both took out their screwdrivers and the wire saw the screwdrivers "Armed! They're both armed and clever! Withdraw! Withdraw," the Wire exclaimed as she severs the connection between herself and them, and all four of them fall to the floor, unconscious.

"The box, Magpie! The box," the Wire said to Magpie and Magpie runs and gets the portable television. He holds it up to the Wire. "Hold tight," she told him and then the Wire jumps via red light into the portable television. "Conduct me to my victory, Magpie," she ordered and then Magpie leaves his shop with the wire in the portable television with him, running outside and into his van and he puts the Wire behind the steering wheel so he can still see her "Hungry! Hungry! Feed me," She said.

* * *

Back with The Doctor he wakes up then Rose woke up as well and they saw that the Inspector has no face anymore "Tommy, wake up! Tommy! Come on," The Doctor said trying to wake Tommy up.

"What happened," Tommy asked as he woke up.

"Where's Magpie," the Doctor asked and then The three of them ran outside the shop and see that Magpie has gone.

"We don't even know where to start looking, it's too late," Tommy said starting to giving up.

"It's never too late, as a wise person once said, Kylie I think... But the Wire's got a big plan... so it'll need... Yes, yes, yes, it's got to harness half the population... millions and millions of people... and where are we," The Doctor asked after rambling.

"Muswell Hill," Tommy told him

"Muswell Hill. Muswell Hill! Which means," the Doctor starts and he looks around until he spots a large building on the horizon and gestures at it with both hands. "Alexandra Palace, biggest TV transmitter in North London! Ohh! That's why they chose this place! Tommy?"

"What are you and Rose going to do," Tommy asked the Time Lord

"We're going shopping," The Doctor replied as he and Rose ran back into the shop and tommy follows them. They were gathering equipment and then Tommy holds up a device he found "Is this what you both want," he asked.

"Perfect! Right, we need one more thing," the Doctor said as he gives the equipment to Tommy.

Tommy, Rose and the Doctor run out on the streets, both loaded with equipment and went to the Tardis to get a piece of equipment that looked like a rope "We've got what we need, let's go." he said.

* * *

They ran down a street, the Doctor plugging a device into Tommy's huge equipment bank that he is carrying.

Soon Tommy ,Rose and the Doctor continue to run and then Tommy spots Magpie on the pylon "There," Tommy exclaimed

"Come on, "The Doctor and Rose exclaimed to Tommy and an official approached them "Woah, Woah, woah! Where do you think..." the official starts before being the Doctor shows him his psychic paper. "Oh! I'm sorry sir! Shouldn't you and your wife be at the coronation," he asks the Doctor.

"They're saving us seats," The Doctor told him and the official nods confusedly.

"Who did he think you both were," Tommy asked the Doctor as they rounded a corner

The Doctor looks at his psychic paper "King of Belgium, and princess regent of Belgium apparently," The Doctor told Tommy.

Soon they entered a control room inside Alexandra palace and The Doctor dashes around gathering the equipment he needs, Tommy is in front of a video machine and television screen.

"Keep it switched on. Don't let anyone stop you, Tommy," he told Tommy and then he looked at Rose "Arkytior, my love stay here okay," the Doctor whispers to Rose "Okay Theta I will," she said "Everything depends on it. Tommy you understand," The Doctor asked Tommy and he nods with confirmation. Then the Doctor sprints back around the corner, past the confused official, trailing a stream of magnetic recording tape behind him from a reel around his waist. He runs up the metal stairs and begins climbing up the transmitter, following Magpie.

"You'll get yourself killed up there! Your Majesty," the official told the Doctor from down on the ground.

Magpie has reached the main plug of a transmitter "Feed me!" the Wire yelled and Magpie plugs his portable TV in to the main current and the Wire laughs triumphantly and across the country of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, TV aerials draw in the sparks emitted for the pylon and people watching the TV are pulled in by the red electricity.

"Oh! Feast! Feast... ing! The Wire... is feasting," The Wire said

"It's too late! It's too late for all of us!" Magpie exclaimed

"I shall consume you... Doctor," the Wire stated and the Doctor is blasted in the face with red light and he cries out "I won't let you do this, Magpie!" he shouts at Magpie

"Help me Doctor! It burns! It took my face, my soul!" Magpie said helplessly to the Doctor.

"You cannot stop the Wire. Soon I shall become manifest," The Wire told them and the Doctor is blasted again.

"No more of this! You promised me peace!" Magpie told the Wire.

"And peace you shall have." the Wire said, softly and then Magpie is blown into thousands of particles with the red light. The Wire laughs as he screams and dies, and then the Doctor tries to touch the portable TV but is zapped by red sparks on his hand.

"Been burning the candle at both ends? You've overextended yourself missus. You shouldn't have had a crack at poor old Magpie there." he told her as he picks up the TV as he is zapped in the foot "Rubber souls! Swear by them!" He exclaimed and then he inserts a switch into the TV, downstairs we see the machine spark and break, and nothing happens to the Wire.

"Oh dear! Has our little plan gone horribly wrong, Doctor?" The Wire asked the Doctor as she laughs as the Doctor stares, horrified.

Meanwhile Back downstairs, in the control Room Tommy and Rose realises the device broke , and Rose quickly finds a new one, gives it to Tommy and he replaces it and re-plugs the machine.

Back with the Doctor, he watches as the light beams retreat from the pylons, televisions and people, right back into the Wire's portable television. She writhes and wails with pain, thwarted.

Back in the Control Room Tommy is grinning as he realises the plan is working and Rose does the same as she knew it would work.

Back on the ladder to the transmitter "It's closed down, I'm afraid, and no epilogue." the Doctor says and with one last piecing shriek from the Wire, the television switches off and the Doctor stares at it for a moment.

Back in the Control Room Tommy was watching the coronation on one of the screens and Rose was standing at the door waiting for the Doctor as the Doctor returns to them and she hugs and kisses him "What have I missed?" He asked them

"Doctor! Rose! What happened?" Tommy asked the two gallifreyans.

"Sorted. Electrical creature, TV technology, clever alien life form, that's me and Rose by the way. I turned the receiver back into a transmitter and I trapped the Wire in here." the Doctor explains He indicates a betamax that he is holding. "I just invented the home video 30 years earlier. Betamax." he told them and then he notices the TV, and the coronation footage on the screen. "Oh look! God save the Queen, eh?"

Tommy, Rose and the Doctor return to their street and they saw that there are loads of people milling around and meeting loved ones.

Tommy spots his grandmother with her face returned "Gran!" he exclaimed happily.

"Look, it's my grandson! Oh son!" she said as she notices him as well and Tommy runs to his gran and they hug each other.

Outside the Connolly's house, on the street, 50's music is playing, people are out on the street dancing and talking. Trestle tables line the centre of the road covered in pastries, cakes, drinks, etc. The Doctor and Rose walk down the street. "We could go down the mall, join in with the crowd," Rose suggested

"Nah, that's just pomp and circumstance. This is history right here," the Doctor said as he eats Victoria sponge.

"The domestic approach," Rose told him "Exactly." he stated and They laugh.

"Will it... that thing... is it trapped for good, on video?" Rose asked her husband.

"Hope so. Just to be on the safe side though, I'll use the unrivaled knowledge of trans temporal extirpation methods to neutralise the residual electronic pattern." he told her

"Just leave that to me, when I was still chameleon arched my human self always did that," she stated and they then met up with Tommy who was at a table sitting.

"Tell you what Tommy, you can have the scooter. Little present. Best... um... keep it in the garage for a few years though, eh?" the Doctor said and behind them, Eddie walks down the street with his suitcase as Rita embraces her mother. Tommy looks over the Doctor's shoulder and saw his father walking away with luggage "Good riddance," Tommy said

"Is that it then, Tommy? New monarch, new age, new world, no room for a man like Eddie Connelly." The Doctor asked Tommy. "That's right. He deserves it." Tommy replied

Rose has detected the hint of unconditional love for his father underneath his harsh words and she nudges his shoulder. "Tommy, go after him." she told him

"What for?" he asked the Time Lady.

"He's your dad," she told him.

"He's an idiot," Tommy added.

"Course he is. Like I said, he's your dad. But you're clever. Clever enough to save the world so don't stop there. Go on!" she said and she smiles, giving him another nudge and Tommy was Convinced to do what Rose told him to do and runs to join his dad. They walk side by side and Tommy takes his dad's bag for him. They continue down the street together. Doctor and Rose watch them fondly from a distance. The Doctor hands Rose a glass of orange juice. They chink their glasses together, smiling.


	13. The Impossible Planet part 1

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

A few weeks after the incident with the wire and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of Windsor the TARDIS materialises in an area that looked like a cupboard in the 4000s however, the landing the tardis made didn't sound and looked smooth as it usually does, as the Tardis's groans and wheezes were more difficult compared how it usually sounds as it lands. The Doctor and Rose step outside the doors, looking up at the TARDIS.

"I dunno what's wrong with her, she's sort of... queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't wanna land," The Doctor told his wife

"Oh, Theta if you think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else," Rose suggested and both gallifreyans burst out laughing at this absurd notion.

"I think... we've landed inside a cupboard! Here we go!" the Doctor said as he looked around and

he pushes a door in front of them open and they enter another part of the base.

"Open Door 15." they heard a computer voice say as the Doctor opened the door and they entered the room "Some sort of base... moon base, sea base, space base... they build these things out of kits."

"Glad we're indoors, sounds like a storm out there..." Rose told her husband as she heard the sound of something that sounded like wind as if wind was blowing without an atmosphere.

"Open Door 16." the computerized voice said over speakers as the Doctor opened another door and Rose follows the Doctor through the door into a corridor.

"Human design, you've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat-pack wardrobe, only bigger. And easier." the Doctor said as they walked down the corridor and they

They go through another door as the Doctor opened it and it looked like a canteen/cafeteria "Open Door 17." The computer computerized voice said as the Doctor opened it.

The Doctor strides to the middle of the room "Oh, it's a sanctuary base!" he said happily and as Rose closed the door they just came through and heard the computerized voice say "Close Door 17."

"Deep Space exploration. We've gone way out. And listen to that, underneath..." The Doctor said and they both listened

He points downwards, indicating for Rose to listen and they heard the hum of drills. "Someone's drilling." the Doctor said.

Rose looks up and saw words on a wall "Welcome to hell," she read.

"Oh, it's not that bad!" the Doctor said, not knowing that she's reading words on a wall and she laughs, as she points to the wall "No, over there!"

The Doctor saw the words his wife saw: 'WELCOME TO HELL' are scrawled on the wall, with ancient symbols written underneath and The Doctor stares.

"Hold on..." he said as he goes over to the wall "What does that say?"

The Doctor peers closely at the ancient text, but it remains stubbornly incomprehensible "That's weird. It won't translate." he said, confusedly.

"But I thought the TARDIS translated everything, writing as well. We should see English. so this means that this writing is old like possibly as old as the universe itself." Rose said as she examined the writing on the wall.

"Exactly, Arkytior we should see english or any other language than Gallifreyan but 'as old as the universe itself' I don't think it is 13.7 billion years old." the Doctor agreed the first part of what his wife said and dismissed the last part of what she said.

The Doctor stands and goes over to another door "We should find out who's in charge." he said as he turns the wheel to open the door "We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS knowledge. Not a good move. And if someone's lucky enough..."

"Open Door 19." the computerized voice said as the door opened and both the Doctor and Rose gasp in shock, stumbling backwards a few steps as they saw a couple aliens of the same species with tentacles for a mouth and had a ball in their hands on the other side of the door, blinking at them.

"Right! Hello! Sorry! Uh... I was just saying, uh... nice base!" the Doctor said trying to compliment the aliens.

"We must feed." the aliens said as their balls in their hands lit up

"You're gonna what?"

"We must feed." the aliens repeated themselves and their balls lit up again as they spoke.

"Yeah. I think they mean us." Rose suggested and they backed away as the Ood advanced towards the gallifreyans

"We must feed." the aliens said as they advanced toward the gallifreyans couple and their balls lit up as they repeated themselves.

The Doctor and Rose try and make for the other door, but it opens and more of the same species of alien came through the other door.

"We must feed. We must feed. We must feed." the aliens kept saying and another door opens and more of the same species of alien walked slowly through it. The Doctor and Rose are cornered.

"We must feed. We must feed. We must feed."

The Doctor takes his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket as Rose arms herself with a chair.

"We must feed. We must feed." the aliens repeated themselves as The Doctor had his screwdriver and Rose had the chair she was arming herself with at the ready, are backed against the wall by the advancing tentacle mouthed aliens "We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed."

* * *

Just a few moments later "We must feed..." The Aliens started and he shakes and taps the white ball he holds before him "You. If you are hungry." he finishes and the Doctor looked confused as he lowers his sonic screwdriver. "Sorry?" he asked, confusedly

"We apologise. Electromagnetics have interfered with our speech systems." the aliens apologized as they explained why they were threatening the couple and Rose puts down the chair.

"Would you like some refreshment?" the alien asked the Doctor and Rose

"Uhm..." was the reply the Doctor said as another door opens as they heard the computerized voice say "Open Door 18." and a middle aged man came through the door with two other people holding guns.

"What the hell...? How did...?" the man asked as he approaches the Doctor and Rose, staring at them.

"Captain... you're not going to believe this. We've got people. Out of nowhere. I mean, real people. I mean two... living... people. Just standing here, right in front of me." the man said as he contacted his commanding officer with a communication device that is on his wrist and both the Doctor and Rose obviously don't quite know what to make of this unusual reception.

"Don't be stupid, that's impossible." the man's commanding officer said and

the man stares at both the Doctor and Rose "I suggest telling them that." the man said.

"But you're a sort of space base, you must have visitors now and then. It can't be that impossible." Rose told him, confused on why it's impossible for them to be where they are.

"You're telling me you don't know where you are?" the man asked roughly.

"No idea. More fun that way." the doctor confirmed as he grins.

"Stand by, everyone. Buckle down. We have incoming. And it's a big one. Quake Point 5 on its way." they heard a female said over the tannoy

As the base starts to quake and tremble, the middle aged man rushes over to a door and opens it. "Through here! Now. Quickly, come on!" he said urgently and sirens sound and the Doctor and Rose run to follow him through the door, with the two other security guards. "Now!" the man ordered and They quickly went through another corridor which is shaking, smoke rising from the floor, complete chaos.

"Move it! Come on! Come on, come on!" the man said and Rose screams as she nearly falls over and sparks fly everywhere.

"Move it, come on! Quickly! Move it!" the man said again and they hurry down the corridor and find themselves in the control room of the base.

as they entered the control room, where the crew are busy working three of the crew members one of them was the female another one was a young white male and another was a middle aged black man and the three crew members all looked up when the gallifreyans walk in and their mouths drop open and the Doctor beams around at everyone.

"Oh, my god. You meant it," the black crew member said

"People! Look at that! Real people," the female crew member said in shock.

"That's us. Hooray!" the Doctor said

"Yeah, definitely real. My name's Rose... Rose Smith, and... and this is my husband, the Doctor," Rose said as she introduced herself and her husband to them.

A man strided over to the gallifreyans "Come on... the oxygen must be offline. We're hallucinating. They can't be... no." the man said not believing that the Doctor and Rose were real he touched them "They're real!" he said in disbelief.

"Come on, we're in the middle of an alert! Danny, strap up, the quake's coming in! Impact in thirty seconds!" the black man said to the man who touched the Doctor and Rose and they both now knew the name of the guy whom touched them 'Danny' and they saw seconds countdown on a computer screen.

"Sorry, you two, whoever you are. Just... hold on. Tight." the black man said to the gallifreyan couple.

"Hold on to what?" Rose asked him.

"Anything. I don't care. Just hold on. Ood, are we fixed?" the black man asked one of the aliens that unconsciously tried to kill both The Doctor and Rose with their balls and they now knew the name of that species 'Ood' and both the Doctor and Rose find some railings to hold on to.

"Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated." one of the ood said.

"What's this planet called, anyway?" the Doctor asked.

"Now, don't be stupid. It hasn't got a name. How could it have a name?"one of the female crew members told him and he raises his eyebrows, confused on how can a planet not have a name Rose was confused as well.

"You really don't know, do you?"the female crew member asked him.

"And... Impact!" the black man said as the entire base shakes violently. The crew, the Doctor and Rose all cling on tight, but it's over pretty quickly and the Doctor stands thinking that it was over "Oh, well, that wasn't so bad...!" he said and all of a sudden he is thrown backwards as the base shakes even more violently than it did before. He clings to the railing for dear life. There is a small explosion from one of the consoles. Sparks fly around the room. They are all tossed about like rag-dolls. Finally, it stops.

"Okay, that's it." the black man said and the middle aged man that saw the Doctor and Rose first hurries forward with a fire extinguisher and uses it.

"Everyone all right? Speak to me, Ida?" the black man asked, calling to one of the female crew members

"Yeah, yeah!" Ida answered.

"Danny?" the black man called.

"Fine." Danny answered.

"Toby?" the black man asked calling the young man.

"Yeah, fine." Toby answered.

"Scooti?" the black man called.

"No damage." Scooti answered.

"Jefferson?" the black man asked calling the middle aged man. 

"Check!" the middle aged man that saw the Doctor and Rose first answered.

"We're fine, thanks, fine, yeah, don't worry about us." The Doctor said to the crew.

"The surface caved in." the black man answered and on a computer screen he saw that a part of the base had been lost due to the 'earthquake'.

"I deflected it onto storage 5 through 8. We've lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link." the black man ordered Toby.

"That's not my department." Toby told him.

"Just do as I say, yeah?" the black man said and Toby grudgingly leaves the room.

"Oxygen holding. Internal gravity 56.6. We should be okay." Ida said and Rose looks around.

"Never mind the earthquake, that's... that's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?" she asked.

"You'd need an atmosphere for a hurricane. There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum." Scooti told Rose.

"Then what's shaking the roof?" Rose asked.

"You're not joking. You really don't know?" Ida said. "Well, introductions. FYI, as they said in the olden days. I'm Ida Scott, science officer." she introduces herself then she introduces the black man. "Zachary Cross Flane, acting Captain, sir... you've met Mr. Jefferson, he's head of security. Danny Bartock. Ethics committee." she introduces the rest of the male crew members that are in the room.

"Not as boring as it sounds." Danny told them and both the Doctor and Rose grin at him.

"And that man who just left, that was Toby Zed, archaeology, and this..." Ida starts as she places her hands on Scooti's shoulders "is Scooti Manista. Trainee maintenance." Ida introduces the rest of them and Scooti smiles at them.

Ida goes over to a set of controls "And this... this is home." she said as she turns a lever and a whirring sound starts.

"Brace yourselves. The sight of it sends some people mad." Zach told the Doctor and Rose and the room is flooded with a red-ish light as an overhead window opens, revealing a black hole right above them. The Doctor and Rose stand, amazed, watching the light being sucked into it.

"That's a black hole." Rose muttered.

"But that's impossible." the Doctor said in disbelief.

"I did warn you." Zach told him.

"We're standing under a black hole." the Doctor said.

"We're in orbit." Ida added

"But we can't be..." the Doctor said, still in disbelief.

"You can see for yourself. We're in orbit." Ida told him

The Doctor turns to look at her "But we can't be."

"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole without falling in. Discuss." Ida said.

"We can't be in orbit and we should be dead." the Doctor and Rose both said at the same time.

"And yet... here we are. Beyond the laws of physics. Welcome on board." Ida said and a few moments later the base shakes again.

* * *

A while later Toby comes back into the control room, where the crew, the Doctor and Rose are crowded around the control panel.

"Close Door 1." the computerized voice said.

"The rocket link's fine." Toby told Zach and Zack taps a button on the controls and a hologram the black hole appears before them and The Doctor puts his glasses on.

"That's the black hole officially designated K37 Gen 5." Zach said.

"In the scriptures of the Falltino, this planet is called Kroptor. The bitter pill. And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon. It was tricked into devouring the planet, only to spit it out. Because it was poison." Ida said.

"The bitter pill. I like that." Rose said and the Doctor stares at the hologram "We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe, how did you even get here?!" he asked them

"We flew in. You see..." Zach said as he presses another button and the hologram changes to one of the planet with a gravity field emanating out from it like a tunnel.

"This planet's generating a gravity field. We don't know how, we've no idea, but... it's kept in constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there." He gestures. "As a funnel. A distinct... gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in."

"You flew down that thing?" Rose said and grins "Like a rollercoaster."

"By rights, the ship should've been torn apart. We lost the Captain... which is what put me in charge." Zach said.

"You're doing a good job." Ida reassured him

"Yeah. Well, needs must." Zach said.

"But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out." Danny told them.

"We had fun speculating about that." Scooti said.

"Oh, yeah. That's the word." Danny said and he whacks Scooti on the head with a scroll "Fun". he said.

"But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power! I mean... not just big, but off the scale! Can I...?" the Doctor said as he was completely stumped and he gestures to the controls.

"Sure. Help yourself." Ida told him and she pushes a calculator over to him and leaves him to it and One of the Ood approaches Rose and gives her a cup.

"Your refreshment." one of the Ood said as he gave her a drink.

Rose takes it "Oh yeah, thanks. Thank you. I'm sorry, what was your name?" she asked the Ood.

"We have no titles. We are as one." the Ood replied and he leaves and a few moments later the doctor finished using a calculator 'There we go. D'you see? To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds." AKA 666: The Number of the Beast.

"That's a lot of sixes. but it's impossible." Rose said

"You're right honey it's impossible." the Doctor agreed with Rose

"It took us two years to work that out!" Zach said confused on how he figured that out within a few moments.

"I'm very good." the Doctor explained.

"But... that's why we're here. This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero. We're drilling down to try and find it," Ida informed the Gallifreyans.

"It's giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazen Scale," Zach added.

"We could revolutionize modern science," Ida said, enthusiastically.

"We could use it to fuel the Empire," Jefferson added.

"Or start a war," the Doctor said as he took off his glasses.

"It's buried beneath us. In the darkness, waiting," Toby said.

"What's your job? Chief... dramatist?" Rose asked, joking and playfully and the Doctor smirks.

"Well, whatever it is down there is not a natural phenomena. And this, er, planet once supported life. Eons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk." Toby explained to them.

"We saw that lettering written on the wall. Did you do that?" the Doctor asked Toby and he nods

"I copied it from fragments we found on earth by the drilling, but I can't translate it." Toby said.

"No, neither can me and my wife. And that's saying something." the Doctor said

"There was some form of civilisation. They buried something. Now it's reaching out. Calling us in," Toby told them.

The Doctor grins at the crew "And you came."

"Well, how could we not?" Ida asked him and Zach switches off the hologram.

The Doctor was still grinning at them all fondly "So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why? I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant. Excuse me, ah, Zach, wasn't it?"

"That's me," Zach told him.

"Just stand there, 'cos I'm gonna hug you. Is that all right?" the Doctor asked him and Jefferson stares.

"I s'pose so," Zach said and the Doctor edges towards him "Here we go. Coming in." he throws his arms around Zach and clutches him, beaming. "Ahh, human beings, you are amazing!"

Ida looks bemused as he said that.

"Ha!" the Doctor exclaimed and Rose chuckles and The Doctor releases Zach "Thank you," the Doctor told Zach. "Not at all," Zach said.

"But apart from that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags and get back in that ship and fly for your lives," The Doctor told the crew.

"You can talk! And how the hell did you get here?" Ida asked the Doctor.

"Oh, me and my wife got this um... this... it's hard to explain, it just sort of... appears." the Doctor said,trying to explain the tardis a little to them.

"We can show you, we parked down the corridor from um... oh, what's it called? Uh, habitation area..." Rose started she then looks to her husband.

"Three," The Doctor told her.

"Three. Three." Rose told them.

"Do you mean storage six?" Zach asked them.

"Uh, it was a bit of a cupboard, yeah," the Doctor said cheerfully and Zach glances uncomfortably at Ida.

"Storage six, but you said..." the Doctor starts but realized what they said a few moments ago of which areas of the base were lost. "You said... you said storage five to eight." he said and without another word, he turns on his heel and dashes from the room and Rose follows her husband down the corridor "What is it, Theta? What's wrong?" she asked her husband and he opens Door 19 frantically and reentered Habitation are three in the cafeteria. "Open Door 19," the computer voice said and He sprints the length of the room and then the door closed "Close Door 19," the computer voice stated and The Doctor spins the wheel to try and open the door back through the other corridor. "Stupid doors, come on!" he said furiously and then it swings open and they ran down yet another corridor. "Open Door 17." the computer said as the door that just opened and They dash down the corridor, open another door.

"Open Door 15." the computer voice said and as they got the the next door the Doctor slams himself against the door, frantically pushing the button to open it but it won't budge "Door 16 out of commission," the computer voice told him.

"Can't be, can't be!" he said in disbelief.

"What's wrong?! Theta, what is it?" Rose asked her husband and then the Doctor opens a small round window in the door and looks through it.

"Theta, our Tardis is in there. What's happened?" Rose asked her husband.

"The TARDIS is gone," the Doctor said as he stares out the window and he backs away from the window, absolutely horrified, breathing heavily "Door 16 out of commission." the computer voice repeated itself.

"The earthquake. This section collapsed," the Doctor told her and she stares at him puzzled.

"But it's gotta be out there somewhere," she said and She peers out of the window to witness the rocky landscape of the planet outside "Look down," the Doctor told her and Rose looks down and saw that there was a gaping chasm right beneath them.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose go back to the control room and the Doctor speaks urgency with Zach "The ground gave way. Our TARDIS must've fallen down right into the heart of the planet. But you've got robot drills heading the same way."

"We can't divert the drilling," Zach told him and He walks off, the Doctor stares at him, then follows him. "But we need our ship. It's all we've got. Literally the only thing." the Doctor told him

"Doctor, we've only got the resources to drill one central shaft down to the power source, and that's it. No diversions, no distractions, no exceptions. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you and your wife a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that... is the end of it." Zach said as he was obviously irritated and he leaves and Ida approaches the Doctor, who looks completely helpless.

"I'll uh, put you on the duty roster. We need someone in the laundry." Ida told the Doctor before

she follows Zach from the room and heard the computerized voice say "Open door 1."

The Doctor and Rose look at each other as one of the Ood exits, leaving the gallifreyans alone.

"Close Door 1." the computerized voice said and The Doctor goes to Rose and settles against the control panel next to her "We've trapped ourselves here," he said.

"Theta?" Rose said and he looks at her "What, Arkytior?" he asked his wife.

"I think the Tardis activated her HADS defense mechanism. She's possible on the Planet," Rose told him with optimism.

"Arkytior, I hope you're correct," he said as he kisses her and then the base shakes again and Rose looks upwards through the window at the black hole "Okay, we're on a planet that shouldn't exist, under a black hole... and no way out." she said "And we travel with an exploding star that is destined to become a black hole but is suspended in time. Stop worrying about me and start worrying about each other," she said and he looks at her and she catches his eye. and Rose laughs nervously, he pulls her into a tight hug and looks darkly at the black hole, just holding her.


	14. The Impossible Planet part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC**

A little bit latter the Doctor and Rose sit by the ancient text in the canteen area, and Doctor staring at it with his brow furrowed.

"Danny, check the temperature of Ood Habitation. It seems to be rising." Zach said over the tannoy and Rose gets up and walks over to the hatch through which the food is being served. Danny stands to do what Zach tells him and Scooti is already by the hatch with her tray.

"Help yourself. Just don't have the green. Or the blue." Scooti tells Rose as she gestured to the trays and laughs. Rose picks up a tray and goes over to the hatch and saw the Ood are serving food.

"Uh, bit of that, thanks." Rose points at food and the Ood spoons some sloppy blue gloop onto her tray "Would you like sauce with that?" the Ood asked her.

"I'll have a go, yeah." Rose replied and the Ood shakes some sauce onto the tray and Rose grins. "Do you actually get paid, though? Do they give you money?" she asked.

"The Beast and his Armies shall rise from the Pit to make war against God." the ood said polietly to her.

"I'm sorry?" Rose said asking if she heard what she thought she heard because since she turned back into a time lady she hasn't believed in god and religion because Gallifreyans haven't had religion for millions of years and the Ood taps his communication orb "Apologies. I said, 'I hope you enjoy your meal." the Ood said and that made Rose confused "Yeah she said as she picks the food up and walks off.

* * *

A while later still in the canteen the lights flicker "Zach, have we got a problem?" Ida asked Zach through her communication device on her wrist.

"No more than usual. Got the Scarlet System burning up, it might be worth a look." Zach replied and Ida looks at the Doctor and Rose who are both sitting opposite each other at one of the tables. "You might wanna see this. Moment in history" she told them and she pulls a lever which opens the overhead "shutters", revealing the black hole overhead and flooding the room with soft red light.

"There. On the edge," Ida said pointing to a stream of red light that's spiraling into the black hole.

A stream of red light is spiralling into the black hole. "That red cloud... that used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Peluchi... a mighty civilisation spanning a billion years... disappearing. Forever. Their planets and suns consumed," she added and she gazes up at it, fascinated, as are the Doctor and Rose. The last of the Scarlet System disappears into the black hole.

" Ladies and gentlemen... we have witnessed its passing." Ida said and she goes to pull the lever to close the shutters again, but the Doctor stops her. "Er, no, could you leave it open?"

he asked Ida and Rose looks at him. "Just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise." he told Ida.

"How would you know?" she asked him and The Doctor smiles. "Scooti, check the lockdown," Ida said and Scooti nods and leaves.

"Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me," Ida told Jefferson and then both Jefferson and Ida exit, leaving the Doctor and Rose alone as the two gallifreyans heard the computer say "Open Door 18."

"When I was still chameleon arched my human self's seen films and things, yeah, they say black holes are like gateways to another universe. But in reality not all black holes lead to another universe most black holes that do that are supermassive black holes in the centre of galaxies." Rose told her husband as they heard the computer say "Close Door 18."

"Yep Arkytior you're right ,not that one. It just eats." The Doctor agreed with his wife.

"Long way from Earth..." Rose said as she stares at space and the Doctor glances at her and points into space "Go that way, turn right, keep going for um... about five hundred years... then you'll reach the Earth." he said and then Rose takes her phone out of her pocket and presses a few buttons.

"No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could... what would I tell her...? I wish we could build another TARDIS but they were grown."

She laughs half-heartedly, knowing it's impossible. "And with our own planet gone... we're kind of stuck." the Doctor added as he agreed with her.

"Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift," Rose said, consolingly to her husband.

"And then what?"

"I dunno... find a planet... get a job... live a life, same as the rest of the universe." Rose suggests.

"Pfft... we'd have to settle down, Arkytior. In a house or something, a proper house with... with... with... with doors and things. Carpets! both of us Living in a house!" the Doctor said in horror and Rose laughs. "Now that... that is terrifying." he added.

"We'd have to get mortgage." Rose teased her husband in a sing-song voice and he stares at her and his horrified of what she said "No." he told her.

"Oh yes." she said.

"I am dying. That's it. I am dying, it is all over. If that was to happen I'd rather be chameleon arched along with you." the Doctor said and they sit in silence for a few moments.

"When you were still human I promised Jackie I'd always take you back home," he told his wife.

"Everyone leaves home in the end," she told him "even you did remember you left Gallifrey with our granddaughter,Susan when you were 210 years old and I would of too If I didn't somehow regenerated, got chameleon arched and got sent to Earth in the late 1980s."

"Not to end up stuck here." he told her.

"Yeah, but stuck with you, Theta, that's not so bad." she said and he looks at her.

"Yeah?" he asked her.

"Yes," she answered sincerely and the Doctor smiles. But then the moment is broken by Rose's phone ringing and Rose answers it and heard a deep male voice say "He is awake." and she is shocked, and Rose drops the phone to the floor.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose bound down stairs to see Danny in Ood Habitation working at a computer.

"Evening!" the Doctor said calling to Danny.

"Only us!" Rose told Danny.

"The mysterious couple. How are you, then? Settling in?" Danny asked the Doctor and Rose.

"Yeah, sorry, straight to business, the Ood, how do they communicate? I mean, with each other." the Doctor asked Danny.

The Ood are sat in an area below them in what looks almost like an animal-pen. A balcony looks over this area and there are steps from there.

"Oh, just empaths. There's a low level telepathic field connecting them. Not that that does them much good. They're basically a herd race. Like cattle." Danny explained.

"This telepathic field, can it pick up messages?" Rose asked.

" 'Cos I was having dinner, and one of the Ood said something... well, odd."

"Oh. An odd Ood." Danny said.

"And then I got something else on my er... (She glances at the Doctor) communicator thing." Rose added

"Oh, be fair. We've got whole star systems burning up around us. There's all sorts of stray transmissions. Probably nothing." Danny added

The Doctor and Rose stare at him, far from convinced "Look... if there was something wrong, it would show. We monitor the telepathic field. It's the only way to look after them. They're so stupid, they don't even tell us when they're ill." Danny told them.

The Doctor nodding to the computer "Monitor the field, that's this thing?" the Doctor asked Danny as he saw that the screen read 'Basic 5'.

"Yeah. But like I said, it's low level telepathy. They only register Basic 5." Danny told them but while he has been speaking, the reading has risen to Basic 6. "Well, that's not Basic 5," the Doctor said and then the numbers on the screen rises, again and again "10." The Doctor then said.

Rose watches as the Ood suddenly raise their heads in unison as the reading ascends.

"20..." he reads and then he turns to Danny "They've gone up to Basic 30."

"But they can't..." Danny said, confusedly.

"Doctor, the Ood..." Rose said as she watched the Ood turn, as one, and look up at her, the Doctor and Danny on the balcony.

"What does Basic 30 mean?" she asked.

"Well, it means that they're shouting, screaming inside their heads." Danny said, baffled.

"Or something's shouting at them..." the Doctor suggested.

Danny taps on the keyboard "But... where's it coming from? What is it saying? I mean..." Danny starts and then he looks at Rose "What did it say to you?"

"Something about the beast in the pit," she told Danny and he blinks "What about your communicator? What did that say?" Danny asked her.

"He is awake." Rose said after a moment of pause.

"And you will worship him," every single Ood in the room said in unison.

"What the hell?!" Danny said in confusion.

"He is awake." the Doctor walked to the edge of the balcony in front f a railing like object and repeated what Rose said, addressing the Ood

"And you will worship him." every single one of the Ood repeated themselves.

"Worship who?" he asked but got No reply. "Who's talking to you? Who is it?" he asked again.

* * *

A while later the entire base shakes and the Doctor and Rose are still in Ood Haitation are down in the pen with the Ood, Danny still on the overhead balcony when they are thrown violently around and they struggle to regain their balance and as the Doctor and Rose got out of the pen and ran up the stairs to the balcony and they hear the computer say "Emergency hull breach. Emergency hull breach."

"Which section," Danny was scared and he asked Zach with his wrist device.

Zach picks himself up off the floor in the control room. He speaks into his own communication device " Everyone... evacuate 11 to 13, we've got a breach! The base is open. Repeat: the base is open."

* * *

Meanwhile in a corridor Jefferson and two other crew members hurry along a corridor, shielding themselves from the sparks flying from the walls and the smoke rising through the floor.

"Open Door 19," the computer said as door 19 opened and The Doctor and Rose burst back into the canteen area, followed by Danny through the door "Close Door 19," the computer then said.

"I can't contain the oxygen field, we're gonna lose it," Zach exclaimed from the control room.

"Come on! Keep moving!" Jefferson said, yelling as he tries to open a door and The Doctor, Rose and Danny come from one direction and Ida and other crew members from the other "And you too, Toby," Jefferson said as he pulls Toby through the door.

Toby falls flat on his face through the door as Jefferson slams it shut "Breach sealed. Breach sealed,"they all heard the computer say.

The Doctor dashing over to the rest of the crew "Everyone all right?! What happened? What was it," he asked them.

"Oxygen levels normal." they then hear the computer say.

Jefferson was panting "Hull breach! We were open to the elements. A couple of minutes and we'd have been inspecting that black hole at close quarters." he said and Rose crouches to help Toby, who is still sweating and panting on the floor.

"That wasn't a quake. What caused it," the Doctor asked.

* * *

In the control room Zach looks at a diagram of the base on his monitor "We've lost sections 11 to 13. Everyone all right," he asked his crew and the gallifreyans.

"We've got everyone here except Scooti. Scooti, report," Jefferson said, using his wrist device trying to contact Scooti and he got a static and a beep on the communication device "Scooti Manista? That's an order. Report," he then said still using his communication device on his wrist and again, he only comes up with the blank beep and the static.

"She's all right," Zach told them on the communication device and Jefferson and Ida breath a sigh of relief. "I picked up her bio chip, she's in Habitation 3," Zach added "Better go and check if she's not responding, she might be unconscious."

Toby looks at his hands, turns them over, to see that they're clean. "How about that, eh? We survived." Zach stated on the communications device.

"Habitation 3... come on, I don't often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink. Come on," Jefferson said and Everyone but Toby, the Doctor and Rose follow Jefferson down the corridor.

The Doctor crouches down to Toby, who looks severely shaken "What happened?" he asked Toby.

"I don't... I dunno, I... I was working and then I can't remember. All... all that noise, the room was falling apart, there was no air..." Toby told them, speaking very fast, flustered.

Rose helps Toby to his feet "Come on. Up you get. Come and have some Protein One," she suggests as they walk down the corridor "Oh, you've gone native," her husband told her.

"Oi, don't knock it, honey. It's nice. Protein One with just a dash of Three," she said as she clicks her finger.

they all go into the canteen, and saw that it was slightly chaotic. They're all looking for Scooti, all talking over each other.

"I've checked Habitation 4..." Ida stated.

"There's no sign of her. The bio chip says she's in the area." Jefferson said.

Rose, Toby and the Doctor come through the door.

"Have you seen Scooti?" Jefferson asked Toby.

"No, no, no, I don't think so." Toby answered.

"Scooti, please respond, if you can hear this please respo... Habitation 6." Ida spoke into her wrist device.

"Nowhere here." Jefferson said "Zach? We've got a problem. Scooti's still missing." Jefferson told Zach using his wrist device.

"It says Habitation 3." Zach told him.

"Yeah, well that's where I am, and I'm telling you she's not there." Jefferson told him as the Doctor gazes upwards, through the overhead window "I've found her," he told them and then they all look upwards, following his gaze. Rose's hand flies over her mouth "Oh, my God..." she said in shock as she saw Scooti's body is floating eerily just outside the window.

"I'm Sorry. I'm so sorry." the Doctor muttered to himself and the rest of them just stare, horrified.

Jefferson spoke into his wrist device, quietly "Captain... report Officer Scooti Manista PKD... deceased. 43K2.1."

"She was twenty... twenty years old." Ida stated as she goes over to the controls. The Doctor stares up at Scooti's body, grave and silent. Ida pulls the lever to close the shutters. Scooti drifts further and further away towards the black hole as they close.

"For how should Man die better than facing fearful odds? For the ashes of his father... and the temples of his Gods." Jefferson said quoting Thomas Babington Macaulay's poem 'Lays of Ancient Rome' and his voice has dropped to a whisper. The shutters have closed completely, leaving the room noticeably darker and gloomier than before. A strange silence has also fallen.

"It's stopped..." Ida stated listening to the silence, a distant crash they heard from the ground.

"Honey, What was that? What was the drill?" Rose asked her husband as she stands next to him.

"Yes it was, Arkytior." he confirmed.

"We've stopped drilling. We've made it. Point Zero," Ida added.

* * *

Later on the exploration deck the crew are preparing to go down the mineshaft.

"Capsule established. All systems functioning... the mineshaft is go... bring systems online now." Ida said and the Doctor appears wearing a spacesuit, approaches Zach and Zach stares at him.

"Reporting as a volunteer for the expeditionary force." The Doctor told him.

"Doctor, this is breaking every single protocol. We don't even know who you are." Zach said to the Doctor.

"Yeah, but you trust me, don't you? And you can't let Ida go down there on her own. Go on... look me in the eye... yes you do, I can see it. Trust." the Doctor said.

"I should be going down." Zach stated.

"The Captain doesn't lead the mission. He stays here. In charge." the Doctor told him.

"Not much good at it, am I?" Zach asked bitterly and the Doctor doesn't answer, but simply looks at him and Zach sighs.

"Positions! We're going down in two. Everyone, positions!" Zach said addressing everyone.

Rose catches the Doctor's eye and they walked over to each other.

"Mr. Jefferson! I want maximum systems..." Zach told Jefferson and his voice fades as he walks away. Rose and the Doctor stand facing one another. "Oxygen... nitro-balance... gravity. It's ages since I wore one of these!" the Doctor said as he checks a device on the wrist of the spacesuit.

"I want that spacesuit back in one piece, you got that,Theta?" Rose told her husband.

"Yes, ma'am." the Doctor said to his wife jokingly and he puts on the helmet.

"Arkytior, I'll see you later." the Doctor told his wife with confidence.

"Not if I see you first, Theta." she told him as she laughs softly and pulls his head down so she can place a kiss on his helmet. "I love you." she said before leaving.

"I love you too, Arkytior." he said.

* * *

Meanwhile back in the Ood Habitation Danny addresses the Ood in Ood Habitation "You will remain here. No command can override this. Have you got that? My instructions only."

* * *

Back in the control room Zach presses a few buttons on the panel in the control room "Capsule active. Counting down in 10... 9..." he started counting down.

* * *

Back in the exploration deck Zach's voice is booming out over the tannoy "8... 7... 6..." Zach said continuing counting down.

The Doctor and Ida go into the capsule and Jefferson closes the door after them "5... 4... 3... 2..." Zach continues as Jefferson salutes the Doctor and Ida.

"1..." Zach finished counting down and Rose waves, smiling at him and the Doctor waves back, returning the smile.

"Release." Zach said after counting down and the capsule descends the shaft. Toby is sitting hunched in a corner, he looks like that he's very twitchy and paranoid and keeps checking his hands. A diagram on a computer screen shows the descent of the capsule into the depths of the planet.

The Doctor and Ida stand inside the shaking capsule in silence as it descends down to the surface.

* * *

Back in the control room The hologram on the control panel also shows the capsules descent and Zach watches it and saw that the stats now says 'DANGER' underneath the words 'oxygen'. "Gone beyond the oxygen field. You're on your own." he told the Doctor and Ida as he contacts them as they continues descending to the planet's surface.

Inside the capsule both the Doctor and Ida switch on their oxygen tanks.

* * *

Meanwhile back on the exploration deck Rose was worried out of her mind of her husband "Don't forget to breath. Breathing's good." she said into the comm and she demonstrates taking deep breaths.

"Rose, stay off the comm." Zach interrupted her, obviously not wanting the time lady on the comm.

"Fat chance." she replied to Zach on the comm.

As the capsule reaches the planet's surface it shakes rather too violently, and both the Doctor and Ida are thrown off their feet. They hang on to the sides of the capsule to steady themselves.

Meanwhile in Ood Habitation, every Ood suddenly stands and turns, looking up at Danny and the crew member who is with him. The crew member points his gun at the Ood, glancing at Danny.

* * *

Back on the exploration deck the diagram on the computer screen indicates the capsule has reached Point Zero(the planet's surface) and it causes the whole base to shake and as soon as Rose has managed to steady herself, she's back on the comm. "Doctor?" she gets no reply "Doctor, are you all right?" she asks again.

In the control room Zach tries to contact Ida. "Ida, report to me..." he got no reply as well as there was silence. "Doctor?" he then said on the comm more forcefully.

The Doctor and Ida, on the planet's surface inside the capsule as it was on the planet's surface. "It's all right... we've made it... coming out of the capsule now." The Doctor replied using the comm.

Back on the exploration deck Rose breathes a sigh of relief knowing that her husband was still alive.

Meanwhile back on the planet's surface The Doctor and Ida step slowly out into the darkness, flashing their torches around "What's it like down there?" Rose asks her husband on the comm.

"It's hard to tell... some sort of... cave... cavern... it's massive." he told his wife trying to find the right word to describe the planet's surface.

"Well, this should help. Gravity globe." Ida said as she tosses some sort of white orb up into the air. It floods the entire cavern with light, revealing what is quite clearly ancient architecture. The cavern is enormous, there is a huge face etched into the rock. "That's... that's... my God, that's beautiful." Ida said as she was filled with awe.

"Rose... you can tell Toby... we've found his civilisation." The Doctor told his wife as he looks around.

Back on the exploration Deck Rose looks at Toby "Oi, Toby, sounds like you've got plenty of work." she told him cheerfully.

Toby, still distracted and twitchy, isn't really as interested in this information as he normally would be.

"Good, good. Good." he muttered to himself.

In the control room Zach is still using the comm "Concentrate now, people. Keep on the mission. Ida... what about the power source?" Zach asked Ida.

On the planet's surface the Doctor and Ida traipse alongside a rocky wall, Ida holding the flashlight in front of them.

"We're close. Energy signature indicates north, north west. Are you getting pictures up there?" Ida asked Zach.

"There's too much interference. We're in your hands." he told her.

"Well... we've come this far. There's no turning back." she stated.

"Oh, did you have to? No turning back? That's almost as bad as 'nothing can possibly go wrong' or 'this is is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had..." the Doctor started.

"Are you finished?" Ida asks the Doctor as she turns around to look at him and he stares at her.

"Yeah! Finished." he said and he walks off. Ida watches him, slightly amused.

* * *

Meanwhile back in the Ood habitation, one of the Ood below the balcony blinks at Danny. "Captain, sir. There's something happening with the Ood." Danny said into his wrist communicator as he contacts Zach.

"What are they doing," Zach asked Danny.

"They're staring at me. I've told them to stop, but they won't." Danny told Zach as he was trying to keep his voice down and he stares at the Ood nervously.

"Danny, you're a big boy. I think you can take being stared at," Zach told him trying to reassure him.

"But the telepathic field, sir. It's at Basic 100! I've checked, there isn't any fault. It's definitely 100," Danny added confusedly.

Zach was confused on how's that possible "But that's impossible," he said.

Rose and Jefferson can hear this conversation from the exploration deck "What's Basic 100 mean? Does that mean brain death?" she asked.

"They should be dead," Danny said.

"You're correct. Basic 100's brain death," Jefferson confirmed the Time Lady's suspicions.

"But they're safe? They're not actually moving," Zach asked, wanting to know if they were doing anything else.

"No, sir," Danny confirmed what Zach was asking.

"Keep watching them. And you, Jefferson, keep a guard on the Ood," Zach told Danny and Jefferson.

Jefferson looked at one of the guards with rifles "Officer at arms," he ordered the guard and he readies his gun "Yes, sir," he replied.

"You can't fire a gun in here. What if they hit a wall," Rose asked Jefferson with a concerned look.

"I'm firing stock 15, only packs upon organics," Jefferson explained and he looked to the security guard "Keep watch. Guard them," he told the guard.

"Yes, sir," the guard said.

* * *

From the surface of the planet the Doctor hears everything going on in the base through the comm "Is everything all right up there," he asked them.

"Yeah, yeah, Honey," Rose quickly told her husband .

"It's fine," Zach told the Doctor.

"Great," Danny said sarcastically and sighs.

The Doctor and Ida approach an enormous circular trapdoor with engravings on it.

"We've found something. It looks like metal. Like some sort of seal. I've got a nasty feeling the word might be 'trapdoor'. Not a good word, 'trapdoor'. Never met a trapdoor I liked," the Doctor said.

Ida shines the torch around the edge of the circular trapdoor "The edge is covered with those symbols," she stated.

"Do you think it opens," Zach asked her through the comms.

"That's what trapdoors tend to do," the Doctor muttered.

Ida walks around the trapdoor "Trapdoor doesn't do it justice. It's massive, Zach. About thirty feet in diameter," she said.

"Any way of opening it," Zach asked.

"I don't know. I can't see any sort of mechanism." she told Zach.

"I suppose that's the writing, that'll tell us what to do. The letters that defy translation," the Doctor said wondering that the words that wouldn't translate would open it.

"Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it," Zach asked Toby through the comms.

On the exploration deck Rose looks over at Toby "Toby, they need to know, that lettering, does it make any sort of sense," she asked him and Toby has his head in his arms, still crouched in the corner.

"I know what it says," he said quietly.

"Then tell them," Rose said.

"When did you work that out," Jefferson asked Toby.

"It doesn't matter, just tell them," Rose said and Toby stood up and he turns towards them, revealing that he is covered in the symbols, eyes red. Toby speaks, with a deep voice, obviously not his own.

"These are the words of the Beast," Toby started and Rose stares at him in shock.

"And he has woken," Toby finished and Jefferson points his gun at Toby.

"He is the heart that beats in the darkness, he is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise."

"Officer, stand down. Stand down." Jefferson ordered Toby.

"What is it?! What's he done?! What's happening?! Rose?! Arkytior?! What's going on?!" The Doctor asked shouting through the comms with growing urgency but he got no reply.

* * *

Meanwhile in the control room Zach also wanted to know that was going on "Jefferson?" he asked but as he used the comm he only heard static comes through the comms and in answer Zach hits some buttons "Report. Report!" he shouts.

Meanwhile back in the exploration deck Toby flexes his arms "Officer, as commander of security, I order you to stand down and be confined. Immediately!" Jefferson shouts at Toby.

"He's come out in those symbols all over his face. They're all over him." Rose told her husband and Zach through the comm.

"Mr. Jefferson, tell me, sir... did your wife ever forgive you," Toby asked Jefferson as he considers them.

"I don't know what you mean," Jefferson said pretending to not know what he meant.

"Let me tell you a secret: she never did," Toby told him.

"Officer... you stand down and be confined." Jefferson ordered as he swallows his throat.

"Or what," Toby asked Jefferson.

"Or under the jurisdiction of Condition Red, I am authorised to shoot you," Jefferson told Toby ad he aims his gun at Toby.

"But how many can you kill," Toby challenged Jefferson and Toby's eyes light up and his mouth opens in a low roar as the symbols evaporate off Toby's skin and leave him as swirls of black smoke. This smoke then enters the Ood, who jerk as the entity that possessed Toby then possesses them. Toby, himself again, coughs and collapses and Jefferson points his gun at the three Ood on the exploration deck.

The Ood in Habitation are also possessed.

"We are the Legion of the Beast," the Ood stated.

"Rose? What is it? Arkytior?" The Doctor shouts and asks as he was getting worried about his wife, not wanting to lose her again. he looks to Ida "I'm going back up," he told her as he walks off.

"Report. Report! Jefferson, report! Someone, report!" Zach shouts through the comm.

Meanwhile back in Ood Habitation the Ood hold their communication orbs out in front of them "The Legion shall be many. And the Legion shall be few..." the Ood said starting to chant.

"It's the Ood," Rose said into the comm.

"Sir, we have a contamination in the livestock," Jefferson said into his wrist communications device.

"Doctor, I don't know what it is, it's... it's like they're possessed," Rose told her husband through the comm.

"They won't listen to us," Jefferson told Zach through his wrist device.

* * *

back in Ood habitation "He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time," the Ood said continuing to chant as they separates themselves from the rest and walks up the stairs from the pen towards Danny and the other crew member.

"Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Kroptor. Some may call him Satan..." the Ood went on, chanting, while Danny turns to the computer, frantic while the other crew member has his gun ready "Or Lucifer..."

"Captain, it's the Ood. They're out of control!" Danny said frantically.

"Or the Bringer of Despair..." the Ood added as Danny and the other crew member back away as the single Ood approaches. "The Deathless Prince. The Bringer of Night," the Ood added as they stood a few feet away from the two of them, and the communication orb suddenly shoots out and attaches to the crew member's forehead. It looks as though he is electrocuted and he falls to the floor, dead, while Danny runs.

"These are the words that shall set him free," the Ood went on.

In the exploration deck Jefferson, Rose and another crew member are backing away as the Ood advance "Back up to the door!" Jefferson shouts over his soldier.

"I shall become manifest," the Ood stated.

"Move quickly," Jefferson ordered his crew members in the room.

"I shall walk in might," the Ood went on, continuing to chant.

"To the door," Jefferson said and then they are backing up against the door.

"Get it open!" Jefferson ordered.

"My Legions shall swarm across the worlds..." the Ood said, still chanting as they continued to advance towards them.

Back on the Planet's surface Ida points her flashlight in the direction of the trapdoor as the ground starts to shakes and it begins to open "Doctor! It's opening!" she told the Doctor.

The whole base shakes and Zach grabs onto the console to steady himself "We're moving! The whole thing's moving! The planet's moving!" he told everyone through the comm and he stares upwards as the overhead shutters open.

Rocks shower down on the Doctor and Ida, the Doctor is torn between going back and saving Ida, he stumbles towards Ida, falling over as the ground shakes. Ida whimpers, terrified.

The Ood still advance towards Rose and Jefferson. "I am the sin and the temptation. And the desire. I am the pain and the loss and the dead will come." the Ood said, continuing to chant.

"Get that door open!" Jefferson repeated himself.

The trapdoor on the planet's surface is now completely open.

"The gravity field... it's going! We're losing orbit!" Zach said as he looks at the diagram on his computer screen that indicates the planet moving around bizarrely.

" We're gonna fall into the black hole!" he said frantically.

Meanwhile back in the exploration deck Rose and the other crew member desperately try to open the door, but it won't budge. Jefferson has his gun aimed at the advancing Ood, but they ignore it completely. "I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more." the Ood went on continuing to chant.

"Door sealed," the computer voice said as they try to open the door.

"Come on!" Rose complained.

"Door sealed," the computer voice said again.

"The Pit is open. And I am free." the Ood said as they finished chanting.

Back on the planet's surface billows of smoke rise from the pit, the ground still shaking.

"The Pit is open. And I am free," a deep voice said and The Doctor and Ida stare down into the pit, horror struck as the Voice of the Beast laughs terribly.


End file.
